So I flew back from Iowa on Friday but didn’t get to Hartford until Saturday evening because my journey into being more mindful of life continued courtesy of several interesting happenings.
My flight from Iowa got severely delayed due to first an ATC delay at O’Hare, and then a total O’Hare “ground shut down” which lasted for an hour. My flight was supposed to take off at 6.45, but actually took off at 9pm. We spent two hours sitting in the plane on the tarmac at Cedar Rapids / Iowa City Airport, drinking the beverages and eating the pretzels that the apologetic flight crew brought around from time to time.
It ended up being a really good time - I got to talk to Alexis, read some Scripture and do some journaling, and about halfway through the delay Igor joined me for a long conversation on life, philosophy, career directions, and travel.
When we finally did get in to O’Hare, at 10 pm, my flight to Hartford had already left at 9, but Igor’s flight to Boston had been delayed too so he was able to catch his flight. Meanwhile, I booked myself into the Marriott Renaissance Hotel near O’Hare and got a good night’s sleep in preparation for the next day’s travel odyssey to Hartford.
The Renaissance has quite a wonderful breakfast, so in the morning I gave myself enough time to take advantage of it. As I sat at the table though, after having gotten my omelet and french toast and fruit and coffee and orange juice, I noticed that I was eating without really being aware of the act of eating. I would put a piece of toast in my mouth, and as soon as my hands were done with that act, they would reach out to the coffee and I would prepare to drink a gulp as soon as my mouth was done chewing the food.
I found myself wondering about this - was I rushing through my food, even though it didn’t seem like rushing? I was simply multitasking, right? Or pipelining? The act of efficiently eating suddenly became an object lesson in the mechanistic mindlessness of modern life.
So. I forced myself to sit still between bites - and found myself actually TASTING my breakfast, every bite of it, for the first time in ages (if ever). I let myself be completely aware of the sensations in each bite, in each action - the taste on my tongue, the feel of the glass in my fingers, the motion of the leaves on the tree outside the window.
I can still taste the deliciousness of the orange juice and the crunch of the canteloupe…
I reflected on the similarities between what I was doing and what I thought was Eastern mind-consciousness principles. But it wasn’t so much meditation as in a complete absence of feeling, it was something quite the opposite : fully aware of all that was going on in and around me. I became aware of how rushed my mind was, when it didn’t need to be, how my thoughts were racing ahead to the next thing, and the thing after that, and the thing after that.
The hedonistic act of eating a delicious breakfast served to focus my mind on slowing down, relaxing, enjoying the refreshing taste of everything that was in the moment.
And I experienced a moment similar to a week ago, when I was stuck at the departure gate at Hartford for six hours, when I was suddenly aware of more that was going on around me than I had thought possible… a quite thought deep in my soul saying : “Welcome to the present, welcome to reality.”
