Attention Is What We Do

I don't know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention.

Attention is not a feeling. It is a verb, a small deliberate act. This morning, notice one thing completely: the temperature of your coffee cup on your palms, the particular quality of light where you sit, the exact sound of your breath. Not to calm yourself. Not to fix anything. Simply to be present to what is already here. This is what Mary Oliver knew. Prayer begins when distraction ends, when you stop performing your life and actually inhabit it.