Art of Awareness
Thoreau wrote: "Only that day dawns to which we are awake." The art of awareness is the art of learning how to wake up to the eternal miracle of life with its limitless possibilities.
It is rising to the challenge of stirring old hymn: "Awake my soul, stretch every nerve."
It is developing the deep sensitivity through which you may suffer and know tragedy, and die a little, but through which you will also experience the grandeur of human life.
It is following the philosophy of Albert Schweitzer who teaches "reverence for live," from ants to men; it is developing a sense of oneness with all life.
It is identifying yourself with the hopes, dreams, fears, and longings of others, that you may understand them and help them.
It is learning to interpret the thoughts, feelings, and moods of others through their words, tones, inflections, facial expressions, and movements.
It is striving to stretch the range of eye and ear; it is taking time to look and listen to comprehend.
It is searching for beauty everywhere, in a flower, a mountain, a machine, a sonnet, and a symphony.
It is knowing wonder, awe, and humility in the face of life's unexplained mysteries.
It is discovering the mystic power of silence and coming to know the secret inner voice of intuition.
It is enlarging the scope of your life through the expansion of your personality.
--Wilfred Peterson
