What We Notice

 Have you ever learned a new word and then suddenly you see this word everywhere? Or had a conversation about a certain place and then see that place in a news story the next day? "What a coincidence!" we say. But I honestly don't think it is. I think those words/people/places were always there and we become tuned in and notice. The world is so full of details that we can't always notice everything. What I believe is that we can choose to notice the things that make life better.

Once I was staying with my grandpa over a break during college. We went out for lunch and grabbed a few things at the store. When we arrived back at his house, he said, "Another day of terrible luck." I asked him what he meant. He listed all the "bad luck" of the day: he hit every red light, they forgot to add fries to his order at the fast food restaurant, the store didn't have the bottles of Pepsi he preferred, a bird had popped on his vehicle, the machine wasn't working at self-checkout and we had to go to another one. This list startled me...because I honestly hadn't really noticed any of those things. I had enjoyed the warm Arizona sun (visiting from Nebraska at the time), had a nice lunch, and successfully picked out all the items we needed at the store. But my grandpa was always convinced of this "curse" he had and because of that, every outing was filled with details to support it. 

One great habit I learned from my grandpa, though, was people-watching. He used to take me to the mall and let me shop while he sat at a bench or at the Wildflower Café and just silently watch people. I honestly don't know what he was watching for or what he enjoyed about this activity specifically, but it taught me to slow down and take things in. We, as busy humans, can be very self-absorbed and not think about all the lives passing by ours on any given day. Over the past 2 years, I've been noticing beautiful things every day in my 1-second-a-day picture project, but in the last few months, I've added to that and started trying to notice beautiful human moments too. The kind cashier or the friend who checks in. The kids laughing together on the playground or the lady who bends down to clean up trash. There's no doubt that a lot of things are very wrong in our society, but I also believe in the goodness of people, and I'd much rather gather evidence of goodness than that of the world going to hell. 

The next time you are getting bogged down with all the inconvenient or unlucky or plain bad parts of your week, take time to notice the good things too. Once you start, it usually snowballs. We just have to take the time to look. What we choose to notice matters.