The mindfulness step

The program dining hall, classroom, and library are on the first three levels of the college guest house, and if you take the stairs all the way up you can sit on the roof in the sunshine and look at the mountains.

Because there are no western building codes here, one of the steps is a little bit taller than the rest. Since we walk up and down the stairs so many times a day, it's easy to notice the difference, but it's often hard to remember exactly where the step is. People stumble sometimes.

Tonight we had a program meeting to share our thoughts on things we were thankful for and things that blindsided us so far. Ed, one of the guys on the program, expressed his gratefulness towards the one step that's a little bit taller than the rest. He called it the mindfulness step because it forces him to think about what he's doing: walking up or down the stairs. I decided that's a beautiful way of looking at a stair I would otherwise trip over.

It also reminded me of two things I want out of this trip: I want to be fully present and involved in whatever I'm doing, and I want to look at situations in the best possible light. They're lofty, but it's better to remind myself all the time to get into that mindset. So I'm happy that the stairs are a little uneven, because it means I can pay attention to them.

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