I just felt like stopping by and posting, but I don’t have much time. Today was better than yesterday, mostly because I was more attentive to my Lenten commitment to relax and give myself (and others) a break. Few things matter as much as I think they do, but having been ingrained with values I now intellectually deny, I very easily fall into old patterns without noticing. Unexplored emotions are much more likely to control me than strong conscious emotions, and my reasoning power is more likely to be manipulated by those hidden emotions than the emotions by my rational brain. I think architect Louis Sullivan was referring to outward more than inward observation, but I find his words true for both:
Attention is of the essence of our powers; it is that which draws other things toward us, it is that which, if we have lived with it, brings experiences of our lives ready to our hand. If things but make impression enough on you you will not forget them; and thus, as you go through life, your store of experiences becomes greater, richer, more and more availablel But to this end you must cultivate attention… the art of seeing, the art of listening. You needn’t trouble about memory, that will take care of itself; but you must learn to live in the true sense. To pay attention is to live, and to live is to pay attention….
Janathan Grace Reflections 