Paying attention

Instead of paying with our attention, what if we could start paying attention?

Paying attention to things, getting attention. What is really happening here? What is truly going on? What inspires me in this very moment? What is it I found compelling about this?

The American poet Mary Oliver wrote all her poems outside, while being out walking. She found a certain connection there. It took me almost a year of walking outside to understand that it is opening up my creative process. She writes in her book, “A Poetry Handbook” that great poetry can connect the conscious mind and the heart.

Around 50 years prior to Mary Oliver, Simone Weil was active in the French Resistance during the Second World War. Charles de Gaulle asked her to write up a new pieces on the future of Europe, but he thought she was “mad”. It was way to federalist with the other European powers, and he thought she was crazy. Only a decade after her death, would Simone’s thoughts be considered cornerstones of both French and British social theory and thought.

Hiding away from the attention economy of the internet and looking inwards. Instead of paying for quick distractions with our attention, really paying attention. What

I like to suggest a mini-retreat. Tell your story. Tell yourself a story like it was the first time. Write your younger self a letter. It’s refreshing. What do you choose to tell, what do you pay attention to?

You can listen to this audio essay here.