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Notice Yourself Noticing
The key to alertness and renewal
Recently a man gave me a compliment. He didn’t tell me I was nice-looking, or that I had a lovely smile, or a pleasing voice.
I have heard those compliments before, and while it’s always nice to receive a bit of praise, those comments left little impression on me.
What he said that really pleased me was, “You have such a childlike quality about you. Not childish,” he hastened to add, “but childlike. You seem to notice everything, especially small things, and you take delight in them, the way a young child would.”
Well! Now that is what I call a compliment! It made me feel good to hear for two reasons: it wasn’t about my outward appearance, and it touched upon an element of myself I really feel happy about.
As writers and as human beings it is so important that we notice things. Of even more importance is that we notice we are noticing what we notice.
Perhaps this sounds like gobbledegook, words like paint splattered self-consciously on a canvas. But really all I am talking about is living in the moment and consequently feeling blessed and alive.
Unless I compare myself to a centenarian, I can say with confidence (and a certain amount of daily disbelief) that I am no longer young. And yet there…
