Centering

New Earth Beckons (2)

Recently, a book floated into my awareness as if to say, “Remember me?”

I do remember.  I can see the penciled notes that I made in the margins alongside paragraphs of particular interest.  The book title is Centering — in Pottery, Poetry, and the Person.  Published well before I discovered it, more than thirty years ago, to me it was a treasure.

In Centering, author M. C. Richards describes a process which later became known as “mindfullness”.

For the author, her potter’s wheel provides both an illustration of that process and a metaphor for paying attention — to one’s feelings, thoughts, words, actions — consistently.  Working with the potter’s wheel, it is essential to be present if one desires pleasing results.

So, too in every aspect of our lives.  Centered, we are fully present in our own moments called now.  External noise and distraction have no relevance.

Centered, we savor experience rather than merely moving from one preoccupation to another.

In today’s world there are countless noises — audible and visual — competing to throw us off balance, off center.

The relevance of Centering, both the book and the process, has not diminished.  Our maximum power — and enjoyment — is at the forefront of our consciousness when we are centered within ourselves.  Is there another way-of-being which is more preferable?