Mindfulness is a matter of witnessing... and then choosing to redirect your attention

This passage by Rolf Gates is so rich in beautiful imagery and simplicity that I just had to share it:

"The habits of her mind that create suffering are like deer trails in a forest; if she does not use them, the forest will slowly erase them. Mindfulness allows her to patiently unlearn the trails she has contracted around to create new ones that lead out of suffering.
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Where once she lived within the narrow parameters of her conditioning, now she is feeling into the possibility of conscious choice making. Everything is now on the table. She busies herself cleaning up her inner and outer life, and one day, as she is putting her house in order, she finds something she did not know was lost. Resting in faded glory in the back corner of a forgotten cupboard is her heart. She spends an entire afternoon turning it over in her hands wondering what it means to have her heart back."

by Rolf Gates in Meditations on Intention and Being