Notice What You Notice

Notice what you notice.

That line strikes me as quite profound. I am one that pays attention to ordinary things. Perhaps it’s the writer in me being tuned in to my surroundings for the word pictures. Perhaps it is the mother in me that was always had to have at least one eye and ear trained toward my children. Regardless, being aware is in the details.

Priorities
Priorities may be a factor that determines that on which we focus. For instance, I love plants and can spend time just ‘being’ around them. My husband really couldn’t care less. We had a fierce wind storm early one morning that toppled the star of my front landscape. You have to realize that by ‘landscape’ I mean the meager area that actually has a plan; a purpose in the Five Year Plan I’ve been working on for seven years.

Anyway, this tall imposing Spanish Dagger, loving called the Stickity Pokity, was blown over; broken off at ground level. I call it the star of my landscape because it stood out against the skyline when viewed from the street level and coming up our hillside driveway. It was magnificent. That afternoon was clear and sunny when my husband returned home from work. He did not notice the Stickity Pokity no longer standing next to the driveway. I had noticed at first glance through squinted eyes due to a migraine headache; how was it possible that my husband did not see it as he came up the driveway, drove right beside where it once stood and never noticed it wasn’t there any longer? I do not know.

Gender
Some say there is a distinct difference between men and women in this area. Living with my husband provides a solid argument for that theory. I would like to walk around inside his head for one day, thinking his thoughts, seeing the world through his eyes and noticing what attracts his attention.

The running joke around here is that men, at least the men folk in my home, can not find anything they are looking for unless it is jumping up and down, calling their name. My husband can not find anything in the fridge unless it is right along the front edge of the top shelf. Anything beyond that is invisible to him. If he can not open the door, stand back and have it fall out, he doesn’t see it. Heaven forbid he should actually have to move something around to see behind things. I can tell him which shelf the desired object is on, whether it is on the right, left or in the center without so much as glancing in his direction and from the comfort of the couch but he still can not find it. I know this information because I pay attention, not because my fridge is so organized and structured, believe me.

I’d like to point out that this same man can talk to you about sports data, tell stories from previous games attended, and even tell you how much he paid for tickets many years ago. Is that a gender thing or a priority issue? Let’s just call it Gender Priority and be done with it.

Perspectives
I have a theory that perspective has a lot to do with determining that which we notice and what we do not. This is not gender related at all. Having had many children living in my home at one time or another, I can tell you that their perspective makes things like towels on the floor a non-issue. Same thing for full trash cans. Glasses left on the coffee table, shoes beside the couch, school papers wafting to the floor, clean folded clothes under the bed, candy wrappers stuck in all sorts of odd places……none of these things ever hit their attention radar. They walk through the same rooms I traverse yet are oblivious to all the aforementioned. What was obvious to me rendered them oblivious. Obvious, oblivious. Notice how closely spelled those two words are, yet mean something entirely different? From their perspective, nothing was askew. From my perspective, a stress meltdown was imminent because nothing was on their radar. Indeed, perspective is a powerful factor in determining what we notice.

So, we have looked at priorities, gender and perspective. My question to you, dear reader, is can we change what we notice and deem attention worthy? Perhaps making a concerted effort to notice what you notice will give you insight. It’s that simple, notice what you notice; being aware is in the details.