look and grow Mindful

Dear Reader – There’s a very special state of mind where we savour just the present moment, living in the Now and not distracted by past or future, neither of which exist except as wisps inside our mind. This joyous state is called Mindfulness. It can bring contentment and even happiness.

One way to Mindfulness is through just simply looking. But really looking, really seeing the wonder of the world around us – and savouring what we see. Not just glancing and moving on. As Jon Kabat-Zinn says, ‘Perhaps the most “spiritual” thing any of us can do is simply to look through our own eyes.’

Look and Grow Mindful  is a little book about just that. It’s a book to reawaken our sense of wonder – lost since childhood – and heal our blindness to the splendour of our world.  Such wonder could change our lives and lead us to the miracle of Mindfulness.

The book will be out soon, but this website is being developed ahead of publication, with four aims — (1) To tell you about the book that’s coming; (2) to bring you each day new pictures to go with the book; (3) to run a weekly blog on Mindfulness; and (4) above all to invite your comments on all aspects of Mindfulness and the wonders you see around you.

So between us we’ll open all our eyes and learn to look and grow mindful.

Helen Keller once said, ‘To have eyes and fail to see is the greatest calamity that can befall us.’ So many of us are blind to the joy and wonders around us. If only we could look once more in wonder — at our skies, lakes, fields, forests, landscapes, even at ourselves… such wonder could utterly change our lives.

But the book needs this website, so we can all share our sights and insights. Will you help me develop it, by sending in your comments, insights, suggestions and pictures?

A wee bit about myself. I’ve been journalist, photographer and editor on three continents, where I’ve reported on both wonder and terror (terror such as the Massacre of Tiananmen Square). But there’s light as well as darkness in our world, and we desperately need that light. So I’ve always returned to wonder, especially at the little things like those birds and fields and forests. I’m longing to share all this with you. (If you want to learn more about me, there’s a sort of official bio somewhere on this website. But don’t believe the half of it!)