There once was a gardener who arranged exquisite bouquets, always from the same simple flowers. No two of her arrangements were ever alike. She seemed to have an inexhaustible gift for recombining the same handful of flowers into new compositions.
The beauty of her arrangements attracted the attention of a famous artist, who set out to paint her, hoping to capture on canvas the same variety she achieved with her hands. But he soon found himself outmatched, unable to vary his compositions as endlessly as she varied her bouquets.
The flowers were always the same but the arrangements never were.
The Examen invites us to become this arranger of flowers with the graces gifted into our lives. Yes, it can feel repetitive, but there can be astonishing beauty in sameness.
A central discipline for us is to cultivate the attentive disposition to see the nuanced beauty of the flowers that daily fill our hands.
Paul's Blog 