The Art of Noticing

I’ve been pondering lately. I ponder in the car or in the tub or sitting on the deck.  I’ve realized you can ponder just about anywhere.  Pondering can be exhilarating or it can be a down right dirty task.  I’d have to say my pondering falls somewhere in between.

I’ve been pondering my skill set recently.  What am I good at? Am I an expert at any one thing?  Do I have skills others don’t? If so, what are they? What do you call my skills?  These are the thoughts I’ve been pondering of late. Pondering because I believe we all have a purpose and unique skills and it is our task to seek that purpose and go forth into the world and make a positive impact. 

I have many skills. I can be a leader and a follower.  I love to brainstorm and problem solve.  I thoroughly enjoy researching and finding answers.  I am a creative soul and love to dive into a project, but do better at duplicating a creative vision than developing one of my own.  Writing has become an outlet for me and delight in the satisfaction it brings my soul.  I can organize any given area, drawer or closet in the blink of an eye (but promise me you won’t look in my kitchen junk drawers, because you’d call me a liar.)  I am a great time manager and multi-tasker and can almost be in three places at once.  Really. I can.

These are life skills and I probably have many others I haven’t listed, but the one that continues to play over and over in my mind is simply….I notice things.  I am a Noticer.  Is that a real word?

Notice:  The act of noting or observing; perception or attention. Respectful attention or consideration.  To perceive with the mind, to detect.  To treat with courteous attention.

This is one of my strongest skills I’ve come to realize.  Now, granted, we all notice things, but I think there are different levels of observation.

There are the “ten feet in front of my face” noticers who notice the grandma in the grocery store shopping for spaghetti and has on a bright yellow dress and red shoes.

Then there are the “hmm…that was interesting” noticers who notice the grandma in her yellow dress and that she’s using a old calculator and nods hello to her as they pass but don’t think too much about it.

And then there are the “Noticers like me” who notice the grandma’s ankles are spilling out of her red shoes that are probably 25 years old and two sizes too small and her yellow dress doesn’t fit any longer and observe that she is opening and closing her wallet and continually counting her one dollar bills as she adds the amount of each item she’s just placed into her cart and tells her husband they won’t be able to have sauce with the spaghetti this week. 

This is the art of noticing. 

This is a skill, for lack of a better term, that I possess.  Is this a skill?  I don’t really know, but it is part of my every day life and being a Noticer gives me opportunities to act or not act.  The definition itself uses the word “treat” as a verb; to treat with courteous attention.  Most of the time, being a Noticer requires action, at least for me it does.

I could buy an extra bottle of spaghetti sauce and quietly ask the clerk to give it to them as they check out as an “item they must have forgotten” or I could just give them $2 from my wallet and tell her she “dropped them”.   I have an opportunity to act and can if I choose to do so. 

Maybe that’s why I enjoy writing so much.  There are stories to be told when you are a Noticer.  The little details that others don’t see become the thread that holds the fabric together and in an instant an entire yellow dress can be seen or not seen.

So, today, I have pondered and now embrace one of my life skills as an important one that others might find trivial.  To me, however, being a Noticer has given me great insight and at times such profound peace and am happy that I can add “The Art of Noticing” to my ever changing list of skills.