Mind Less Mondays

Mind Less Monday

A Case Against Being Mindful

Mind less. I don’t want to be mindful all the time or even most of the time. It’s a worthy endeavor, but my mind is already full most days. If I give careful—that is, mindful—attention to everything, I foresee serious brain overload, resulting in something akin to the infamous Microsoft Blue Screen or the Mac spinning rainbow of doom inside my head.

To avoid such an experience, and contrary to all things Zen, I have decided to have mind less Mondays.

Today, I will mind less that the flowerbeds on the walkway to my door are a jumble of color, scent, and variety. I will mind less the weeds and instead see the petals. I will mind less that orange and pink and peach and red are not the best color combinations. I will mind less that some plants are too high, that some plants are too low, some are too few, and some are too numerous.

I will instead wake up to the riot of color. I will instead marvel that the Amaryllis has popped its first spring bloom. I will bend to touch the nasturtium and savor that it is orange although it sits next to pink and savor the pink that sits next to red.

I will continue to be amazed at the different varieties of salvia, the colors—pink, blue, orange, purple, red and white, red—the leaves, the petals.

I will walk with delight and mind less the chaos in the flowerbed that too often reflects my life. Instead, I will see the color, the families, the diversity that I find I mind less in all aspects of my life.