What A Difference A Day Makes - Pay Attention
- Laura A. Weber
- 2 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Growth. Development. Change. Relationships shift constantly because dynamism is at play. If we don't pay attention, we miss it. The difference between connecting consistently or remaining isolated may come down to practicing awareness, whether it's the human or more-than-human realm. If we pay attention, we see life being born, blossoming, fading, dying, and being born anew daily. We can choose to be fully present to life, to interact and respond, or to neglect and ignore life, to turn our attention elsewhere. When we neglect life, whatever form it takes, we dismiss it entirely. We live disconnected from the life around and within us, in a silo-like chamber of our own making. A lonely place.
Fortunately, Nature teaches us the art of real presence.
Focusing attention on one aspect of Nature that draws us day after day, week after week, year after year strengthens our relationship with Nature as a whole. And it has lasting consequences for health, vibrancy, and resiliency. If we continue to observe carefully one facet of Nature in the springtime, for example, we can experience tremendous curiosity, wonder, and affection for all that is emerging.
The more-than-human world of plants, creature-kin, arbor-elders, water, soil, microorganisms, even air remain in constant physiological and energetic connection with all proximate life in order to survive and thrive. The Earth is one, thrumming, living being. If we pay attention to Nature's example, we find our kin paying rapt attention to environmental cues, temperature and humidity shifts, wind current, light availability, predators, prey, sources of food, habitat, potential mates, symbionts, sources of hydration and nourishment, and many, many other strands of the web of life. Eminent evolutionary biologist, entomologist, philosopher, and founder of socio-biology, E.O. Wilson noted, "It's up to us who are trying to promote the environment to help bring society generally to the point where I guess the best you can say about it is they start paying attention. When they start paying attention, they start learning. And the more they learn, the more they will care."
More than just observing all life around us, Wilson popularized the term "Biophilia" (>Gk. βίος - bios = "life" and φιλία - philia = "love/affection" biophilia = "love of life"), the innate bond humanity feels with the diverse forms of life in the planetary ecosystem. When we observe life closely for any length of time, we tend to grow in curiosity, wonder, even affection and love. Spending the time matters. It's the difference a day makes.
The lesson? Pay attention. Learn. See how life changes, grows, and becomes fuller, more vibrant, bursting even. And when life bursts open, decays, and becomes new life, pay attention.
As Shug says to Celie, "I think it pisses God off when you walk by the color purple in a field and don't notice it." (Alice Walker, The Color Purple)
What a difference a day makes. Pay attention.
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