It has become obvious to me that as people get older, we simply notice less. I can drive down the same street every single day for years, and not see the market on the corner, or the new building going up at the busy intersection. Most of all, we stop noticing people. As we go about our day, we are focused, and intent on getting all of our “to-do” items checked off our list. If we are not on the phone or another device, we are most likely staring downward in thought about a pressing issue in our lives, or simply daydreaming.
I have been trying lately to be more intentional about noticing my environment and the people around me. Like the lady in my office building who goes out for a smoke every hour. Or the elderly man who comes to work with an oxygen tank in a wheelchair. Or the new sign in the bus stop terminal outside the hospital, and the man sitting on the bench. Even unrelated things, like the way the people across the restaurant are laughing together, or the ant crawling along the ground holding a piece of food three times his size. In my mind I create vignettes around these flashes of other realities. Often I try to catch someone’s eye and smile, and many times, even though I am in the South and people are typically very congenial, I will get a surprised smile in return. It’s as if people have forgotten how to acknowledge each other, how to take each other in. It is amazing what you can notice when you simply look up and look around.
What are things that you notice in your daily life that you feel sometimes get passed by?
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“It’s as if people have forgotten how to acknowledge each other, how to take each other in. It is amazing what you can notice when you simply look up and look around.” Loved it.
I agree with you, the older we get the less we notice. Sometimes I like to go for a walk to look at everything. How people interact with one another and I have noticed that many are in their own little worlds or as I call it their “Personal Bubbles”. We should get out of these bubbles more often because there are many little things that miss. =)
- Casper
Casper,
we definitely have our personal bubbles! That is what I see alot when I’m out in the community. I try to burst them when I have the chance.
This isn’t a direct answer to your question, but it is related to your thought, “It’s as if people have forgotten how to acknowledge each other, how to take each other in.”
Not long ago, I realized something interesting and kind of troubling. When two groups of pedestrians pass each other, more often than not, both groups will become very quiet or completely silent once they get into earshot of the other group. It’s very strange, as if everyone is afraid of being overheard, or maybe we are afraid to seem inviting.
Slow down, you movin’ too fast
Ya gotta make the moment last
Just kickin’ down the cobblestones
Lookin’ for fun and
Feelin’ groooovy
Hello lampost
Whatcha knowin’?
I’ve come to watch your flowers growin’
Ain’tcha got no rhymes for me?
Doo-bee-doo-doo Feelin’ grooovy
Got no deeds to do
No promises to keep
I’m dappled and drowsy and ready to sleep
Let the morningtime drop all its petals on me…
Live, I love you,
All is groovy
Fifty-ninth Street Bridge Song,
Paul Simon, 1970
LOVE Paul Simon. LOVE.
I feel the same way about a lot of things in my life, and I’m trying my best to be all there in everything I do. As a photographer, I try to find the details in my work. I’m trying to see more in my life now.
E.P., you definitely have to notice things for your work, and from what I’ve seen you are amazing at it!
This is so true. When I moved to California when I was 25, I truly didn’t appreciate Tennessee (where I had lived my entire life). When I moved home one year later, I kept noticing beautiful things and asking my family, “has that always been there?”. The answer was yes; I had just never noticed or appreciated it!
It is definitely alot easier to do that in your hometown for sure! I am the same way when I go home to Cincy.
I love this post, Hilary.
Mike is doing his research on mindfulness-based practice – being intentional about our lives and our moods – so this topic is very much on my mind lately.
Wow! I’d love to hear more about that. Is that part of a psych degree? Enlighten me!