MONIQUE SLIEDRECHT: Learning to pay attention to the things that matter
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Northern Drift by Monique Sliedrecht
I’m quite a bit older than my youngest sister (16 years!). When she was very little, I would often hold her in my arms whilst I was speaking with someone else, my head inadvertently turned away from her.
If she was talking to me and I did not hear her the first time, in order to get my attention she would grab my face with her little hands and turn it towards hers very firmly so that I was looking directly at her.
She was determined that I would pay attention to what she had to say! And if I ever had the temerity to glance the other way while she was chattering, she pulled my face back.
It was a sweet gesture, and made me laugh every time.
There will be things, people, that grab our attention – some good, some not so good. Some life-giving, some draining.
What we choose to pay attention to is something to be learned.
I wonder, what is it that we pay attention to?
There have been some stunning sunrises, as well as sunsets in these lengthening days. They can catch our breath, and make us stop dead in our tracks to look with awe. Many of us take photos to try and capture the image. Nothing is as good as standing in the midst of it, under the large and changing sky, watching the drama unfold. Nothing is as satisfying as the real thing.
But there are smaller, less dramatic things that might go unnoticed, unless we learn the art of seeing. We need to recognise when our attention is being pulled away and why.
My attention has been pulled in various directions lately. I notice my attention span is limited, and I get caught in the trap of the endless scroll, or flit from one thing to another, without doing justice to a task by finishing it completely in one sitting.
So I try to ‘refresh’ my mind: I go for a walk to have my attention brought back to a place where I feel more human, more connected, and my soul is nourished. That stillness then feeds the greater attention I can bring to other things – the people and needs around me, my work, and my art or writing.
As Mary Oliver says: "Let me keep my mind on what matters, which is my work, which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.”
Another way she puts it: "Instructions for living a life. Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it."
Today I notice the frost on the ground, sparking in the morning sun; the v-shape of geese travelling high in the blue overhead; I sense a change in the air and the light; I see the patterns in the clouds lit up by the setting sun and the glow of the moon highlighting the path in front of me; Orion is sparkling up high; the stoat is quickly scurrying across to where I last laid birdseed; I notice an orange-yellow light on the tree trunk outside my window; the candlelight flickering and casting shadows on the wall; I notice life sprouting in all its forms; the tender look between a husband and wife.
Pay attention to your heart, and as the ancient proverb says, "guard it for it is the wellspring of life".
- Monique Sliedrecht is an artist, blogger and podcaster based at Freswick – www.moniquesliedrecht.com
