Geranium Mysteries

In Nature as Spiritual Practice, Steven Chase describes a practice of "Attention as Contemplative Reawakening," (p. 24). He suggests identifying an object or location in nature that attracts your attention, and then giving it your awareness -- looking, listening, smelling, touching, drawing on your memory, imagination and intuition, studying it over several days, and each time trying to become aware of some aspect of it that previously escaped your attention, noticing the variations and subtleties over time.

Coincidentally (or perhaps not), I have been doing that over the past couple weeks with two geraniums in my living room, fascinated by the different ways they catch the light, and the ways the petals unfurl, and what I discover through the camera lens.

With another practice, Chase suggests the following step:
As you are ready, let your senses and awareness enfold your object up to--and perhaps beyond--the point at which your awareness comes up against something "more" in nature than the material/ecological, something you can call mystery or wonder. Allow the mystery to unfold in you. Notice where your consciousness rests: with attentiveness, with mystery, or somewhere in balance. p. 44