Come to Breakfast with an Open Mind

“Come to breakfast with an open mind.”

I heard this phrase a few days ago, as my friend was recounting her recent experience at fourth grade science camp with her daughter. And it has been marinating in my brain and percolating in my bones ever since.

It was the mantra of one of the camp counselors. He would remind the kids, throughout the week, of all the new and exciting things they could see in the natural setting of the forest in which they were camping–if they began their day wearing new eyes and an open mind.
Come to breakfast with an open mind, he would tell them, in the light of the campfire, as the stars danced above them.

For me, this simple phrase has brought up all kinds of meaning. Yes, how freeing to begin my every day as clear as a newborn babe!

What if, this day, I let go–emptied my thoughts of yesterday or yester-year–to make room for something new? What would that look like? What would emerge? Like the painter standing with brush in hand, the empty canvas ready to receive—an infinitesimal number of things!

What if, this day, I started all my interactions and conversations, debates and discussions, without presumptions and preheated facts? What would I hear, and what would I say?

What if, this day, my every action, came from a place of pure being in the moment? And not because of any habits I have created before….

What if, this day, I began my work and my play, without the stories of my past experience to color? Would I charter new territory, try new things? 

What if, this day, I looked around me, and took in the people and places I was seeing, as if I had never seen them before? How different would they look? What would I see?

What if, this day, I blinked my eyes open, and my every usual task became an adventure?

What if, this day, I looked at my problems, and they began to look like blessings?

What if, this day, I opened my eyes to new ideas, solutions, and thoughts? How could my world change, in a day?

And what if, every day, I came to breakfast with an open mind?