Frederick Buechner: Stop, Look, Listen
“From the simplest lyric to the most complex novel and densest drama, literature is asking us to pay attention. Pay attention to the west wind. Pay attention to the boy on the raft, the lady in the tower, the old man on the train. In sum, pay attention to the world and all that dwells therein and thereby learn at last to pay attention to yourself and all that dwells therein.”
Frederick Buechner, Originally published in Whistling in the Dark, from Frederick Buechner Quote of the Day from Frederick Buechner Center www.frederickbuechner.com
From my balcony I watch a mother and father and two young children walk along the water’s edge of the Gulf of Mexico. The two adults are doing almost power walking. The two young children stop and pick up shells and stop and put their bare feet in the cool ocean and stop and watch the dolphins as their parents keep going. The children are finding treasures, living in the moment and reacting to what they see. It is old hat to the adults. Perhaps they have forgotten the mystery. This is what we must keep remembering, what children can teach us, what the child within us can teach us. The mystery of God is at every step, but too often we keep on walking.
Joanna joannaseibert.com