Living Deep Awake

I don't know where this saying comes from - I first heard it from a friend of mine at EMU. I think of it as my antidote to a society that thrives on antidepressants and corporate cubicle farms. It is possible to sleepwalk through life because of business or boredom or laziness or exhaustion. It's possible to just not. pay. attention.

I don't want that.

Living deep awake - it's the opposite of sleepwalking through life. Being aware of the life that is thriving around you. Alert to it, to the beauty; all this beauty, all around us, all the time.


Here is how I've been living deep awake this summer:

treating hanging up laundry like an art form
noticing the bugs outside, and smiling at them
listening to bon iver - putting holocene on repeat
writing poetry
reading poetry
shelling peas
riding bike with my dad and noticing shadows
sleeping enough (it's important. it helps me see things better. it helps me love the world)
listening to my thoughts
kayaking
shopping at the vietnamese grocery in lancaster city
taking risks
sending letters
loving life
loving God
loving the world


Mary Oliver writes: I don't know what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention, how to be idle and blessed, which is what I have been doing all day.

I like that thought very much. I do know how to pay attention to the created world. I do know, little by little, a little more each day, the character of the Creator. I want to do this more and more. I want to see better. I want to be Awake.

This weekend I:

saw Star Wars: A New Hope for the first time, read The Hunger Games, saw my brother for about 5 minutes, ate lunch with my dad, played Portal for an hour, had my Friday Night Dinner/Discussion, turned in a paper, turned in a lab write up, took an online quiz for Neuro, read a bunch in the Neuroscience textbook, read a bunch of A History of the Jews, slept, ate toast with garlic salt (the quick way to make garlic bread!), slept, slept, did lots of laundry.

that's a pretty good weekend if i do say so myself.