Paying Attention

Though the Academy Awards were no surprise to anyone who has been following the chatter and static written about the nominees over the past two or three weeks, I watched it all.  It's overblown.  It's political of course, but still, there's usually something that sticks out, has some small but inspiring significance.  Mostly, I watch because, as a dreamer, I have the habit finding inspiration in even the most benign things.  I insist on noticing because my life depends on it.  Living depends on noticing.  Living well depends on noticing well.  

When I see a flower in full bloom, I am captivated, brought to a standstill, awed.  It's because, literally, there's nothing better to do.  When you get right down to it, there is nothing I can do as a human being that surpasses taking notice of the exquisite and unique perfection of a flower.  Or any other living thing actually.

There are flowers, flowers everywhere, especially in spring, every single one of them delicate, exquisite, perfect.  Ordinarily, instead of really looking at even one solitary flower carefully, we rush off to Save-Mart or work or a traffic jam.  Every day.  Day after day.  All our lives.

That strikes me as being just so damned odd, I can hardly express it.

For all the days you've been alive, how much time have you spent paying attention to what your eyes were capable of seeing or your ears capable of hearing?  There is nothing better to do.  

Yes, I am a dreamer, but I know how important that is, to me, and to the world -- because I am alive, kicking, breathing, taking up space just like all over living things.  The Academy awarded creativity tonight, and imagination.  There are big egos getting massaged in such a setting, but the part I take away from it is the need for a strong ego on the part of a creative individual so that they have the will to offset the humdrum and ordinariness of what we call "daily life."

You can call it daily life or, more accurately, dull life.  One way or another, the intention to be more alert to beauty or possibility has to be deliberate; otherwise, dullness sucks at your ankles and pulls you to a stop.  The eternal struggle to extract oneself from mediocrity; to champion the unusual, the exquisite; to notice evidence of the vastly complex universe is the most important thing I can do.

Guess what a dreamer does:  They pay attention!  And you thought it was the opposite.  That's pretty ironic I think.

I say, be a dreamer.  Slow down at least once today and look very closely at something outdoors and get to know it well.  There's nothing better to do.