"What do you notice, what are you seeing?" she asked me as I tried to take in every aspect of the scene's that were unfolding around me. Through the large glass windows I could see the rain pounding against the sidewalks as the early light of morning struggled to make a showing through the thick layer of clouds. Wet leaves were flying around in the wind and cautious drivers struggled to adjust to the first storm of the year. Inside the bakery the aroma of fresh pastries that lined the shelves in the glass case and a hot cappuccino placed strategically under my nostrils seemed to overwhelm my senses as I tried to absorb every detail of the moment.

"Why did she always start out with this question?" I wondered to myself. And as it often happens, the answer came as I was asking the question.

"Because your not seeing enough!" she replied before the question had left my mind.

"I see everything around me" I argued quietly, challenging her to make a better point.

"Look at the sidewalk and tell me what you see."

"I see raindrops bouncing off of concrete and making small puddles."

"That's very poetic, but really, is that all you see? Now look closer but give it your full attention. Notice everything and tell me what you see."

As I studied the rain drenched concrete, things began to come into focus. I saw how the oils on the sidewalk mixed with the water to create subtle colors of violet and green. I saw the texture of the concrete that seemed to soften beneath the saturation. I could see the trees on the sidewalk reflecting in the water. As I looked even deeper I noticed how each puddle responded to every new drop as the vibration of each drop created a ripple that mixed with other ripples and carried all the way to the edge of each puddle.

I tried to see more, but there wasn't anything else to see, at least not in the sidewalk. "Are you sure?" she asked as I struggled to open my awareness.

"How am I supposed to see what isn't there?" I knew I would be challenged on that question as soon as I put it out there.

"And it isn't there because you can't see it? You know better. Look, quit struggling, just relax and don't think about what your looking at. Let it be what it is. Don't judge it in any way. Allow it to reveal itself to you. As long as you assign something to what your looking at, that thing your looking at must follow your rules and then it's response is limited to what you have defined it to be."

I looked again. This time I noticed everything that I have described but I gave them no thought, no judgement, no definition. The rain drops, the puddles, the colors and reflections, they just were what they were as I relaxed and waited to see what else they might reveal. Soon I noticed that a lively little melody was taking shape in the back of my head. The longer I starred at the sidewalk, the livelier and more audible the melody became. The dancing notes were in perfect rhythm with the raindrops that were percolating in the puddles out on the sidewalk. As I focused on the music I began to see subtle hues of color, more like waves of energy that stretched out from the puddles and connected to each other. Each color was slightly different and as each color or energy wave mixed with another one, it created it's own unique color.

Soon I realized I was looking at a myriad of energies and colors that not only connected the tiny puddles on the sidewalks, but were connected to everything else around them, the trees, the street, the buildings, everything. As I watched the colors changing and blending, I realized that perhaps these energies and colors reached out and connected with the whole world, maybe even the whole universe!

In my excitement I looked up from the sidewalk to the tops of the buildings across the street fully expecting to see the world like a giant kaleidoscope with colors splashing at me from every direction. But what I saw was just the tops of the buildings across the street. As soon as I conceptualized it, I lost it. I had lost myself in the moment, and as soon as I found myself, everything went back to normal. Normal is so boring.

I heard her ask me again, "So what do you notice, what are you seeing?"

"A beautiful rainy day, and life is everywhere!" I said as I sipped from the hot cup of cappuccino. When I looked up I couldn't help but notice a young lady wearing a long winter coat, the kind you rarely see in the valley, maybe in New York or Seattle. My first thought was that this was a typical over reaction that Californians tend to do when we get a little rain or wind. My next thought was that maybe she was just that cold. I noticed she was carting a lap top along with a large purse and a few books as she left the counter and took up residency at a table close to me.

"What do you notice, what are you seeing?" the voice asked me as I tried to look without looking. I did not want to invade her space by starring. She wasn't particularly pretty but I knew she had a story. What was her story? Who was she? Why did our karma bring us together, or at least this close at this moment in time? Did she wonder the same thing about me? We were the only two customers in the coffee shop. Was it synchronicity or just coincidence? Was the coffee shop about to get robbed and it was to be my destiny to take a bullet for her? Was she my love child from a one night stand back in 1983? Maybe we were supposed to have a quick verbal exchange about the weather or something mundane that would result in one of us saying something of deep importance that the other person needed to hear at that moment. My mind raced through a dozen possibilities.

"What do you notice, what are you seeing?" the voice asked again as I gathered up my writing paper, cell phone, and glasses and headed for the door.

"That I'm going to work" I said as I made my way through the heavy winds and pouring rain to the little scion that waited for me across the parking lot. "Colorful little car" I thought as I pulled out into the traffic and headed off into my future, my next moment.