Mindfully Welcoming 2018

by Gina McMaster January 01, 2018

As I sat perched on the headland at Ballina this morning, with all those brave enough and sober enough to greet the sun at 5:30 am, there was a mixed feeling of hope and anticipated disappointment.  The horizon was heavily clouded yet we all were wishing the sun to magically light up the sky with spectacular colours while knowing that it probably wouldn’t.  In its special way, nature offered me my first mindfulness lesson for the year on non-judgemental observation, acceptance and perfection.

Everybody was focused on one thing, the horizon. Apart from the occasional quite comment within small clusters of friends, we waited in peaceful silence to see what would unfold. We were a living example of Mindfulness which is a sustained state of awareness cultivated by paying attention, purposefully, in the present moment and non-judgementally. 

Sometimes we can struggle with sustaining a mindful state because of our mind chatter. For the most part, my mind was peaceful, but I did notice the occasional thought popping in about this sunrise being boring because of its lack of light and colour and my mind comparing it to more beautiful sunrises I had witnessed at the same beach at other times. The ridiculousness of this type of thought is that it didn't change the dawn, it just led to a short but unpleasant feeling of disappointment. On reflection, perhaps I wasn’t the only one there with that thought, and that’s why some people left.

 Those who stayed and accepted the sunrise as it was, were rewarded with a palette of vibrant pink, black and grey.

 

I will leave you with a thought about acceptance. While for me this wasn’t an ideal sunrise to start the new year, with acceptance, it became perfect one because it reminded me that beauty can be found in any given moment, if we take the time to notice and accept things as they are. I wish you many beautiful moments in 2018.

 

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