“Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way, on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.”
-Jon Kabat-Zinn
Jon Kabat-Zinn has writing a wonderful little book called Wherever I Go, There I Am. This quote is probably from that book. Last Friday I wrote about how life is what it is. Paying attention in a nonjudgmental way is seeing life at face value. When I go on walks, whether they are outside or within my office, I observe all kinds of things. It is challenging to not judge what I see, especially in regard to people. I mean, a flower is a flower is a flower, but a person can be many things. Recently I realized that a person I know, who seemed to be one thing, was actually much more in a good way. I dare say that many people have much more depth than they appear to have on the surface. A few have less. It is easy to mis-judge or under estimate the totality of a person. I have to be honest, though, about some people. Whenever I have thought someone was a jerk, they usually were. Mis-judging is one thing, my intuition is another thing. Most people and most things are not what they appear to be. There is usually more there than meets the eye. On the other hand, if your inner alarms are going off, you should pay attention.
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