The Art of Noticing

For the month of November, I’m committing to a personal writing project focused on the art of noticing. A good writer notices things that the average person does not. Or more importantly, they put things in words that average people do not. Sometimes I’m a good writer and other times I’m a good noticer. With so many balls in the air, I’m finding lately that I’m rarely both. So, this month I would like to work on that.

The art of noticing is more than just a writing exercise though. As a society, we usually notice the things we’re conditioned to notice. Our lives - our health, our education, our homes - are all dissected into various parts with various experts that are supposed to tell us when things are good and when there’s a problem. We are supposed to outsources so much that we stop paying attention to anything. Of course, we need help from experts to do the things we can’t, but somehow we started believing it was everyone else’s job to notice our own life. “Why didn’t you say anything?” A child falls behind, a marriage fades, the body finally breaks down. We’re caught by surprise because we stopped noticing.

One thing I noticed…

Sometimes we get in a habit of not listening, especially as parents. Maybe there was a good reason to cut them off or not let them talk any longer. The attitude or the tone may have been disrespectful or poorly timed. After a while, all you hear is the complaint, “You’re not listening to me.” And then you move on because its late. Tonight, I noticed that we actually weren’t listening to them. There was a reason for it, but I kept forgetting if it was a good reason anymore. So I ignored the exhaustion for a minute longer and tried to actually listen. It won’t solve every problem, but I think it prevented a few more down the road.

What are you noticing?