I was thinking about how every experience can be something special if I give it special attention. Then, I woke up this morning with a sinus headache that turned into a migraine headache. It is very difficult to turn pain into a positive experience. Yet today I was cleaning some grapes. I began to think about the idea. I started to think about how it felt to clean grapes. There’s something that I really like about it. When I buy grapes, they are attached to their vines, and they need to be removed to be cleaned. I take a bunch out and hold the vine part with my left hand and then I hold the grapes with my right hand. I then grab a grape with my thumb and index finger, and I gently twist it about a quarter to a half turn. When I do this motion, the grape lets go of the vine, and releases into my finger. When I clean grapes, I get to do this over and over again about two hundred to three hundred times. That feeling of release into my fingers feels good. It is that same type of feeling, people get from popping the bubbles in bubble wrap. For a little while, instead of thinking about the pain in my head, I was thinking about that feeling of the grape in my finger letting go of the vine and releasing itself into my fingers. Then, I washed the grapes and I got to feel the cool water on my hands as I ran it over the grapes.
I realized that every moment and every day doesn’t have to change the world or be spectacular. I don’t have to make every moment a miracle for it to be special. What makes the moment special is my being there and having an open heart. I could have stood at that sink and thought about the pain and been miserable while I did my chore. Instead I tried to open my heart up to the experience. I tried to find the zen of cleaning grapes. It didn’t change the world or even cure my headache, but it did give me a special experience feeling grapes being cleaned in my hands and while I was doing that my head pain wasn’t as bad because I was paying attention to my life.
I don’t know how it all works yet. I feel like I am a baby still learning to walk, but I have a feeling that the more I practice having an open heart and the more I pay attention to my life, the better my experiences are going to be. They may not all be miraculous or amazing. They may not be positive, but they can be so much more than I could have ever imagined. I have faith in that.
My faith saved me. May God’s peace reside in all of our hearts.
