Curious

I admit that I am curious.    In fact, I kind of like that I am.   I am curious about many things:  my garden and the gardens of friends,  the shape of the edge of water, the feel of my cup of tea.    I am especially curious about people.   I watch them, I absorb them as they sit down on the bus, I smile as I watch them crowd around my pond searching for elusive fish.

It is the kind of curiosity that draws me into the kind of open-hearted awareness I increasingly experience.    This combination of curiosity and awareness is something I commonly experience with people, plants and rocks.    People are at the top of my list.

I sat last evening with a lovely friend in a quiet sidewalk cafe in St. Paul, and I was swept here and there with curiosity as I listened to her.    It became such a pleasant, aware time.    Earlier, I sat in a concert hall and was curious about a piece of music I had never heard before.   My curiosity allowed me to be transformed by a weaving disharmony that carried me through a labyrinth of new musical awareness.    It was thrilling.

I am aware that I routinely invite others into the world of curiosity.    I encourage them to be curious about me as I am about them.    I know that this may have some unfavorable aspects of ego-building in it.    But I am also inviting them into a relationship built on curiosity and awareness, theirs and mine.     I too am curious and want them to be with me.

It is a dance of curiosity and awareness.    It is a dance that always requires a partner, whether it be a person, plant or rock.    We lean toward one another in an exchange of curiosity that easily morphs into awareness.

I have often encouraged my son to be curious, especially when I hear something like, “I don’t care about that.”   I  am myself learning the meaning of my own words.    I don’t think I fully understood the invitation I was offering and promoting.

I encourage others to be curious about many wonderful things:   school, retirement, gardening, friends, the world.   I often remind myself that it is time for me  to be mindful.    How much more exciting, energizing and effective to remind myself to be curious.