Noticing: Learning to Let Go

When no one listens to the quiet trees
When no one notices the sun in the pool
Where no one feels the first drop of rain
Or sees the last star
Or hails the last morning of a giant world
Where peace begins and rages end:

One bird sits still
Watching the work of God:
One turning leaf,
Two falling blossoms,
Ten circles upon the pond.

One cloud upon the hillside,
Two shadows in the valley
And the light strikes home.
                       ~Thomas Merton

Dear Community,
This bit of a poem by Thomas Merton speaks volumes to me. It may be the essence of 'noticing.'
It seems to be at the heart of the practice itself. There is nothing to do. It is not necessary to put oneself into a yoga pretzel position or to give oneself a backache sitting on a meditation cushion.
In and of themselves, they are wonderful places for noticing; however, they are not the necessary means to an end in the practice.

Let go of any rules, prescriptions and assumptions. Just, well, notice. And, don't make a big deal out of what you notice. Noticing unfolds, much like Thomas understood. Without trying, see where the practice of noticing takes you. Separate details and assumptions that are so easy to form in the mind!
Just, well, notice.

I was recently in San Francisco and then a rural area in Northern California. Here are some of my noticings:
Two pigeons sitting atop a billboard on Market Street.
A middle-aged and ragged-looking man stood in the doorway of a small diner, drew in a long drag on his cigarette, and exiled the smoke into the restaurant while smiling.
While mama deer skitted away, a fawn stood still, noticing.
Desire to finish things that can never be finished.
"Letting go" welcomes spaces, sometimes welcomed spaces.
When meditating, if you can let yourself think your thoughts and feel your emotions, the mind and body find their way toward Silence, Breath, and Beyond. Isn't the same true while noticing?

Finally, when we say "I notice," WHO is the "I?"

We practice alone yet together.
Namaste,
Michael Tompkins, IHM