Noticing
Here’s a scary thought that’s not meant to be scary. It’s a subtle reminder of how little value we actually place on our “time!” Not so long ago I read, Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman. In the book he states, “The average human lifespan is absurdly, insultingly brief. Assuming you live to be eighty, you have just over four thousands weeks.” Just to put that into perspective, if I am blessed with eighty years of life, I have another six hundred and twenty ahead of me. That’s one hundred less then when I read the book. So it’s true and the math does work, and it keeps on working! I know….
“Time is an equal opportunity employer. Each human being has exactly the same number of hours and minutes every day. Rich people can’t buy more hours. Scientists can’t event new minutes, and you can’t save time to spend it on another day. Even so, time is amazingly fair and forgiving. No matter how much time you’ve wasted in the past, you still have an entire tomorrow.”
Denis Whitley
Noticing is a choice, something you can be intentional with. Time is not a choice, it keeps moving no matter how you choose to spend it. I’d be lying if I said the six hundred twenty weeks wasn’t an eye opening moment for me. But it was only a “moment” and I do think I can pack a lot of moments into another six hundred or so weeks, especially if I am intentional. It’s the reason why I am sharing a moment I had with this beautiful owl during my morning walk. What you don’t see here is the grace with which he flew by me, landed on this branch and then turned towards me. I felt like he was encouraging me to take this photograph.
“Good photography is not about Zone Printing or any other Ansel Adams nonsense. It’s just about seeing. You either see or you don’t see. The rest is academic. Photography is simply a function of noticing things. Nothing more.”
Elliott Erwitt
I am one of the most un-technical photographers you can imagine. What I pride myself in is seeing and hearing stories from the subject matter that comes into my field of view. If I am going to notice things then I have to increase my field of view, we all do.
“The little things? The little moments? They aren’t little.”
John Kabat-Zinn
I’m not afraid of how many or how few weeks are meant for me. I know that if I keep practicing, the list of my regrets are going to be the only number that truly matters. I want my list to be short!
“One day you’re 17 and you’re planning for someday. And then quietly, without you ever really noticing, someday is today. And then someday is yesterday. And this is your life.”
John Green
Life today makes it too easy to pay attention to all the things that don’t matter, and very difficult to notice all of the things that truly do. You can change all of that!
“The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.”
Michael Altshuler
Talk soon…
G