Attention as dancing dust

Have you ever caught the moment as dust dances down to the floor?... from anywhere and nowhere at the same time...

It's absolutely magical! Especially in sunlight when the individual dust pieces sparkle in the light.... they're such sublime teachers! I found them on the pavement teaching me, ripping me off of my identity as an artist, as someone special... humbling, transparent ordinary dust, ordinary steps in the world. On a random spot of this planet, where paths are paved so the dust is held up to notice. It wasn't the dust I noticed first, it was a pair of bright and delifhtfull flower petals... then - with time - I started to notice more... and less.

That was about 13 years ago. And dust keeps falling, teaching. Teaching to stop, and notice. To be where you are as you are. No additional commentary needed. So simple, so available... What's the dust in our life? What is always there that we overlook, postpone or simply brush away? What happens when suddenly the grinder of our mind stops and there's attention. Free.

It could be a special moment, a view, sunset, something big and beautiful, but let's just imagine for a second that it's something small... Something everyday, like the smell of a food you love. Or an unexpected call from someone you love. Or a dog's joy... a bird's song. The fresh morning air... Something that would go unnoticed, but actually magical.

What if our attention is like a falling dust. It's always somewhere, always around, but it has the potential of magic. To connect, to heal, to express, to receive.... There are plenty of examples as well as to misuse our attention. Especially this century when our attention is so overloaded and manipulated with digital distractions.

What if we pay attention to attention itself? According to the Oxford Dictionary attention is:

notice taken of someone or something; the regarding of someone or something as interesting or important.

So we grasp something with our mind, and then form connections about it: past, future, memories, hope, people, emotions... Such and such would think this or that... familiar? Literally everything we grasp into... an opinion and the righteousness about it, a pain of hurt, any kind of grief, regret, sorrow... a constant drive of getting and owning, an image, a concept, a thought... the thought of me and mine... all the way down to the beginning of the effort of grasping itself.

What are we trying to grasp in our life? An idea, a goal, an ... a ... How would it be to take a moment and see what's already here? What births the idea, projects the goal, what tells us the story about it regardless of success or failure? I'm so curious how You experience the dance of your attention, that unnoticed dust... what's behind and under and actually everywhere floating unnoticed. And as it gets noticed, a magic happens: a bloom, a natural blossom of something so deeply sweet. Deeper layers become unveiled, freed. All the effort of the chase, the shoulds and musts collapse into this force of nature. That just is: energetic, acting and gentle, peaceful resting. Everyday life, what a dance: grey moments of waking up, doing things and going to rest again. What if each moment is a potentially sparkling dust that reflects the whole Universe. Including in the midst of our regrets, suffering and beyond our wildest imagination of goals and success. What's here already? Where's the grasp of attention? Every moment we have a chance to stop and become transparent to notice... Something. That's why I'm here, to support the noticing. Provide space to stop and see where did the dust pile up... what needs gentle, quiet, compassionate attention... attendance... atten-dance. ...and finally, the latest delicate dust gift of Pavement Universe: