Inside: Reading a wonderfully descriptive travel memoir prompted me to start paying more attention to my own surroundings, a practice that led to my new word of the year. ~
Last fall I read Gather the Olives: On Food and Hope and the Holy Land, a fascinating collection of essays about what author Bret Lott observed and experienced while living and teaching in Israel.
I was struck by the vast number of details Lott weaves into his stories, and it made me wonder how he kept track of all this information throughout his travels. I certainly couldn’t remember all that off the top of my head if I wanted to write about it later.
In the general course of life, my observational skills are mediocre, at best. I mostly notice what I’m interested in—plants and flowers rather than makes and models of cars, for example.
Expanding My Focus
When it comes to writing, I’ve always been more focused on ideas and thoughts rather than environmental details. Even when I worked as a business news reporter, my highest priority was factual accuracy, not color commentary.
But we never know how a book might influence our lives, do we?
I started paying closer attention to my own surroundings after I read Gather the Olives. And I soon realized this was more than a passing fancy. It was only September, but deep down I knew I already had my word for 2025: notice.
I laughed when I noticed this basket of “hedgeballs” for sale at a grocery store in North Dakota. I’d be rich if I could get $1.99 for each of the hedge apples that carpet my patio every fall!
Which Meaning?
When I pick my new words each year, I often don’t know how they will relate to my life or even which form of the word will mean most to me. This time, though, I have a clear sense of the tense I should focus on.
Not notice as a noun relating to information or warning—final notice, two weeks’ notice, post a notice—but as a verb meaning to observe, perceive, acknowledge, discern, spot, recognize or pay attention.
Soon thereafter, a few things I read confirmed I was on the right track. In October, my friend Linda Stoll wrote about waking up early enough to see a glorious sunrise, which led to thoughts about what she had missed by sleeping in, literally and metaphorically.
“It made me wonder,” she explained, “not only how many stunning sunrises I’ve missed along the way, but how many noteworthy scenarios and outstanding miracles have passed me by because I was asleep at the wheel. Or preoccupied with my routines. Or too absorbed by to do-lists and busyness with things that in the light of eternity will have no value at all.”
Paying Attention
It seems almost redundant to say, but we notice more—about everything—when we pay attention. But paying attention well requires us to be fully present. Engaged with what’s right in front of us. Not focused on the future or the past or an electronic device in our hand.
It’s a worthy goal any year, but even more so this year. At least for me.
Atop a lookout tower in a Wisconsin state park, I noticed my niece and I both have watches that ONLY tell time. (I like being an analog girl in a digital world.)
Marching Orders
Since I enjoyed Lott’s writing so much in Gather the Olives, I followed that up with his book Letters and Life: On Being a Writer, On Being a Christian. Here, in a discussion about precision, I found my marching orders for 2025, at least when it comes to my word of the year.
“Precision starts with life,” Lott wrote. “Precision starts with the real. Precision starts in the experiences you yourself have had, and if you want to write—and this is the crux of the whole thing—you better pay attention to what is happening around YOU as a means by which to be precise. You better begin to look, and to see.”
To notice, in other words.
But How?
I’m not necessarily looking to become more descriptive in my writing, but there’s always room for growth and improvement. Notice is bound to have some effect on my words, but it remains to be seen how that will play out.
As I said before, though, I am trying to be more aware of my surroundings.
I suppose I could set a goal to record three observations each day in a little notebook, but that sounds a little too much like work. Instead, I’ll continue to do what I have been doing since my word came to me. Looking up and out rather than down. Paying more attention to the little things around me. Taking a photo when the opportunity arises, but not at the expense of enjoying the moment.
I nearly missed it as I rode past, but I was delighted to notice someone had decorated this little shrub near the bike path for Christmas.
I wrote a grand total of two posts about my word for 2024, so I’m not making any promises this time around. But stay tuned—I may surprise us both with what flows from my year of noticing.
• • •
Have you noticed anything interesting in your life lately? If so, please share in the comments.
♥ Lois
We never know how a book might influence our lives, do we? Share on X Paying attention well requires us to be fully present. Engaged with what’s right in front of us, not focused on the future or the past or an electronic device in our hand. Share on XP.S. I’m linking up this week with #tellhisstory, InstaEncouragements, Let’s Have Coffee and Grace & Truth.
