A strong and striking bald eagle has taken up residence in an out of the way forested park relatively near to where I live.  I arrived one morning camera in hand hoping to get a photo.  As it was perched on top of a faraway tree, I walked out onto a nearby dock wanting to get as close to it as possible.  Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a fisherman nearby plying his trade. An hour or so later as I was leaving the park, he and I greeted each other.  When I inquired as to what he thought about the eagle he responded, “What, a bald eagle here!?  I was so busy, head down, waiting for a bite that I never even saw it.”

 

“I never saw it.”  How many times have we uttered those same words in reference to a whole host of things, both consequential and inconsequential?   Teilhard tells us, “the whole of life lies in seeing;” he continues, “To try to see more and to see better is not …a fantasy, curiosity or luxury.  See or perish.”  Enter contemplative practice.  Like the student of the violin or piano, like the basketball or baseball player, like the weight-liftercontemplative practice sharpens our skills and capacities and creates all manner of seeing within us.   Although we are counselled to engage contemplative practice with no expectations it “just seems to happen” that we are transformed by it.  Thomas Merton’s words about the Divine come to mind here, “Mercy within mercy within mercy.” That no doubt is at work. We see more.  We are more skillful in our responses to a whole host of things.