[ngg src=”galleries” ids=”5″ display=”basic_slideshow”]For those of us used to going to work or school from Monday to Friday, our world seems out of order. (Today happens to be a Monday, by the way; if you are like me, you may be finding that changes in routines are making it a little more diffficult to keep track!) The patterns that seem to govern the way we live don’t fit like they used to. Some of the time, that is a bit of a relief, but often the difference in our days can be disturbing, unfamiliar, uncertain. Sometimes I feel that way. But then, I suppose I should ask myself, “Who doesn’t?”

I spent some time thinking about that. Most people are having to make the same kinds of adjustments to routines. Many people are facing very great difficulties. And it seems like everyone feels like life is upside down. But when I look around and ask myself the same question again, “Who doesnt?” I realise that there are plenty of lives and routines around us continuing as always. Sunrise sparks a chorus of activity from the birds. Flowers blossom, attracting bees and other pollinators. The ravens have built a nest by the Sperling Skytrain station to hatch another generation, like they do every spring. The cherry blosssoms are lining the neighbourhood with their pink explosions. The frogs have been singing their evening choruses. And we have reached what I like to call, “peak magnolia”, when what might just be the most respendent magnolia tree in the province (found just a short walk from my home) is almost hidden by its thick display of heavy, white and purple flowers.

Growth is happening all around us, and it continues in our own lives too. I am hopeful that the differences we are experiencing in life as we know it will spark more of the kind thinking that will hep us to better understand others’ lives and our own. Perhaps a good place to start is to pause, pay attention, and try to be even more aware of what is around us.

What are you becoming aware of?