Posts Tagged: cultivating awareness of details

“Gratitude and an Eye for Detail”

Do you have an eye for detail?  I do not.  At least, I don’t have such an eye most of the time or in most situations.

My “3-Minute Retreat” from Loyola Publishing challenged me this morning to develop such an eye.  (It was a very helpful retreat, which you can access for free at https://www.loyolapress.com/retreats/recibido-con-gratitud-start-retreat/.)

Toward the end of the retreat, the retreat master/writer asked a question: “Is there an aspect of creation that I should look at in more detail today?”  It is Thanksgiving Day, so the writer was explicitly connecting looking at things in more detail with giving God thanks.

I had never seen so clearly a connection between gratitude and observing things in detail.  And yet, in another sense, that is the way I try to live my life these days.  I try to notice those little realities of my daily life and give thanks for them.  I don’t always succeed of course, but I do try.

My wife is one of the best people I’ve ever known when it comes to awareness of details.  She knows what goes together and what does not.  (If I wear clothes that match, you can thank my sweetheart.)  Perhaps she was born that way, but I doubt it.  She probably had to learn the art of detailed awareness.

While it is rather late in life, perhaps I can learn the art of awareness as well.  Today—and every day—I can notice the details of my life and my world.  And maybe, just maybe, if I can cultivate such awareness, I can give God a larger fraction of the gratitude that God deserves.

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