Noticing

In a time when the attention of so many is sucked into one small physical location, 21st century research is reminding us of the importance of the rest of our environment to day-to-day well-being. Nature and water have the most restorative qualities. The integration of elements in the natural world includes us when we’re walking through it. In Japan they recommend the benefits of forest bathing, a simple walk in the woods. Noticing what’s out there stimulates the senses and can stir curiosity because nature keeps changing. The clouds are different, the fox or deer or rabbit that runs through a yard is never the same, the edges of the creek vary as does the clarity and depth of the water. A regular suburban neighborhood is an endless stream of information, that when noticed, strengthens our ability to notice more. Any continued involvement in something brings expertise which enables us to see in more detail. Whether it’s studying the needs of the plants in your garden or learning more about the people around you, accumulated observation builds knowledge. Spinoza wrote “The more the mind knows, the better it understands.” Any one area of knowledge improves our base for reasoning about other things, with a range of characteristics, functions and interactions that can be compared to new perceptions, making distinctions where different and correlations where the same. Personal verbal language is enriched with new description and metaphor. This is not quantifiable knowledge. Observed knowledge broadens our base of perception. Everything we learn with our eyes fine tunes our ability to see. Every time I walk with my friend Jordan Tierney, I learn something from her intense ecological awareness of the natural world. I notice more. I contrast this with the memory of a teenager I saw walking in the surf at the beach, his eyes never leaving the screen in his hand which is attached by wires to his ears as well. Our curiosity has been co-opted by our phones, reduced to the choices on the screen- has someone responded to our post or text, do we have voice mail, what is the weather in the next 15 minutes, what’s the trending video. As algorithms and demagogues know, emotion gets attention but never has us question why a feeling attracts us. Art shows what words can’t say, bringing the feeling we couldn’t articulate back to us with real depth. Art can show feelings too subtle and deep for words. When Jordan and I were leaving the reservoir area we saw two buzzards pecking at something dead on the ground. When we were close enough see it was a fawn, horror and sadness were the only words. They couldn’t come close to describing the thickness in my chest. Later she sent me this page in her journal so beautifully exemplifying art’s power to say it for me.