{"id":879,"date":"2011-07-05T21:57:41","date_gmt":"2011-07-06T01:57:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beginnersheart\/?p=879"},"modified":"2011-07-05T21:57:41","modified_gmt":"2011-07-06T01:57:41","slug":"a-tree-a-pencil-an-hour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2011\/07\/a-tree-a-pencil-an-hour.html","title":{"rendered":"a tree, a pencil, an hour ~"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Meditation is hard for me. I’m not good at sitting still. I’m not particularly good at walking mindfully. What I do best is be in nature. Want someone to watch birds with? I’m your girl. Sit and watch a mountain breathe? Sounds great. But sit on my butt on a cushion\/ a chair\/ a zafu? Hmmm…<\/p>\n

So I have to trick my monkey mind :). I’m a firm believer in what Thich Nhat Hanh says about washing the dishes: just wash the dishes.<\/em> Don’t anticipate dessert, he admonishes — just wash the dishes<\/em>. It’s the same with being still: just be still. Focus.<\/p>\n

So when I go places, if I can, I draw. Badly, but I still draw :). This weekend, I sat in a white rocker on a turn-of-the-century (1886 :)) balcony and drew. With a pencil. In a new art journal.\u00a0 The first drawing, still unfinished. And I was still. Sure, my hand moved — my thumb, the measure of which divided my page into fourths, and the larger tree into thirds, fluttered above the page\"\"<\/a> like a pale moth. But my monkey mind <\/a>settled, drawn into the drawing…focused on the cross-hatching that isn’t at all like coniferous needles, and the scribblings that aren’t quite leaves :).<\/p>\n

This is one of my favourite meditations: being outside, watching a tree dance with light and shadow, or a mountain play canvas to the painting of sunlight across its slopes. I can sit still for an hour in front of Mt. Hood, for instance, and I have the bad art to prove it :). Like I can sit on the deck, and follow a bird through the trees, on to a feeder, then back into the tree above. The heart of focus: staying the mind on an object outside itself. Letting go.<\/p>\n

The art may not be good, but the stillness is ~<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Meditation is hard for me. I’m not good at sitting still. I’m not particularly good at walking mindfully. What I do best is be in nature. Want someone to watch birds with? I’m your girl. Sit and watch a mountain breathe? Sounds great. But sit on my butt on a cushion\/ a chair\/ a zafu?…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":398,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,96,95],"tags":[11,97,1181,1187,1198],"class_list":["post-879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddhism","category-drawing","category-silence","tag-beginners-heart","tag-being-still","tag-britton-gildersleeve","tag-buddhism","tag-mindfulness"],"yoast_head":"\na tree, a pencil, an hour ~ - Beginner's Heart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Meditation is hard for me. I'm not good at sitting still. I'm not particularly good at walking mindfully. 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