River Countdown: 20 days to go

“My father was recently put into Hospice care and dealing with the imminent loss and pain and joy of his journey has become sweeter for me because I am paying attention. That is no small thing.”

~Lisa Haight, writer of small stones

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We don’t just benefit from paying attention to the lovely things in life: the scent of roses, sunlight through glass, a baby's rosy cheeks.

We also stand to gain from paying attention to the balls of cat fur and dust in the corners of the room, or to the stress lines drawn on our husband's forehead.

If we can open our eyes to all of life (and not just the good stuff) then we will start to make friends with it all. We will have less to fear and we will spend less of our precious energy on avoiding things. And remembering the darkness also means that the lights can shine even brighter.

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Everyone in the crowd sang the lyrics in synchronisation as rain drizzled on our upturned faces.

Ruth Stacey
mermaids drown
from our sister blogzine a handful of stones

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This is our countdown to The River, our mindful writing challenge, starting on the 1^st of January. Fall in love with the world through paying proper attention to one thing every day and writing it down. You don’t need any previous experience of writing and you only need three minutes a day. To find out more click here, get our funky badge, and ask your friends to join you.

Image by alamez via Creative Commons (with thanks)