Paying Attention

from Teresa Keogh, The Main Thing guest blogger

Yesterday a friend and I went on a cliff top walk on the beautiful island of  Madeira, where we are holidaying for a week. At one point, out of breath we stopped and looked at the stunning views out to sea. Turning, I looked at the rock and there was a lizard – and the more I looked the more I saw, at one point I counted 25!

Reflecting on this last night I thought how much resonance there is with being a steward – the more we look the more we see; the more we practice the discipline of gratitude, the more things we realise the graciousness of God and how much there is to be grateful for. Often we just need to look, to pay attention. A bit like the Mary Oliver poem:

Praying
It doesn’t have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch

a few words together and don’t try
to make them elaborate, this isn’t
a contest but the doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.’

And so today I hope that my senses are more attuned and that I can indeed look, see and pay attention; then in gratitude to God as the source of all I will respond to all situations in a more generous manner.