My True Confessions

One of you told me some months ago that I am her psychiatrist. She explained that she found my Noticings uplifting and that they helped her recognize what is important in life. Obviously, I have not forgotten that comment because it really made me happy to hear that my writing is worthwhile.

Truth be told, that person and others who agree, are my psychiatrists.

I have spent the last week or so really having a hard time writing. I keep thinking of the wars and atrocities that humans inflict on each other, and wonder how I can write about such small things – trivial things? - when the world is such a mess.

But, truth be told (again), the world has always had been a mess. There have always been atrocities committed. There have always been horrors inflicted by some against others.

But there has also always been music. And there have also always been flowers. And there have always been sunrises over the ocean and sunsets down the mountains.

Do you think we humans absolutely need these counterbalances to be able to forge forward with our lives?

So maybe it is, indeed, important to Notice. I have come to believe that we don’t do life and living justice if we don’t Notice all the little things that really do make up the texture of life.

The repeating patterns in a head of broccoli, the amazing inventions that I write about like the zipper and the trashcan, the exclamation points to our day that are happy surprises -  running into a sweet dog on the street or being offered some rosemary by a neighbor gardening. Maybe it really is essential to Notice these types of things.

And of course it is essential to Notice our own Human Idiosyn-Crazies ™ and laugh at ourselves. This is what I always tell my audiences when I am speaking: Laughing at ourselves builds up the fuel to be kinder to other people.

The biggest truth to be told of all is that the world really needs a whole lot more kindness. Don’t you agree?

I am about to leave for vacation. I will be back with more Noticings when I return in a few weeks, but meanwhile, do keep Noticing. It would be great if you post your own Noticings at /are-you-a-noticer-too/ so we can all join in.

When signing The Noticer’s Guide to Living and Laughing, I always write “Happy Noticing!” I do this because Noticing is surely a path to greater happiness and appreciation of the richness of life.