Third, we can try to be present to the mystery in a gentle, open-handed, and cooperative way. This is the contemplative option—not any system of complicated exercises, but the simple and courageous attempt to bear as much as one can of reality just as it is. To be contemplative, then, is not to be a special kind of person. Contemplation is simply trying to face life in a truly undefended and open-eyed way.11
