Yesterday Dee wrote on her blog about how she has been practicing the art of mindfulness. This is something I’ve been thinking about too; my recent experiment with mindful knitting was really interesting, and brought home to me that, even when engaged with my hobby, my mind would often rather be anywhere than in the present.

I was thinking about all of this as I sat eating my breakfast this morning, and I started to notice how many lovely things were right in front of me. The scary thing is that most of the time, I don’t even see them.

The sideboard next to where I’m sitting has a fairly random collection of objects on it. There’s this orchid:

Which is sitting in a pot full of these glass pebbles:

This lion, which I bought for Steve many years ago:

Is sitting next to this fabulous Art Deco breakfast set:

At the end of the sideboard there is an antique marble pestle and mortar, which Steve bought for me many years ago.

There is a vase of lilies, which was on the dining table but has been displaced by my blocking (yoga) mat. The flowers are dead and the petals have been dropping on the sideboard. I’ve spent the last few days walking past them feeling grumpy about the mess.

But as I sit eating my breakfast, the sun comes out from behind a cloud and shines straight through one of the fallen petals, highlighting the intricate pattern of veins:

And finally, my yoga mat is still lying on the dining table where my eyelet chemise was blocking a few days ago. One of my sons has made a pin sculpture: