The Art of Noticing
February 3, 2011
Yesterday I wrote for three hours about noticing. A whole course poured out of my pen. The Art of Noticing. The Presence Project. It doesn’t have a name or a date yet. But something akin to that.
When I asked the name of my guiding star this Epiphany, the answer came back “Present.” I dream so far into the future. I look so hard for meaning in the past. I have lost a child’s natural ability to acknowledge the moment that I am in the middle of. To be comfortable with the fact that all we truly have is Now.
Yet the older I become the more I realize, this is ”my one wild, precious life.” Not one day, when I’m famous. Not someday when I’m changing a zillion lives. But now, when I’m “famous among dozens.” Right now in the small, in the moment. When I’m sitting besides Cate listening to her pencil scratch across her math homework. When I’m noticing the chipped polish on my toes. So when God-and-The-Universe gave me the word “Present” at Epiphany I realized — practicing Presence lets you see life as a gift. Presence is the present.
It is my year’s theme, this Presence, this paying attention. All the ways I’ve tried to be more Present in the past have felt onerous. Too laden with judgment. Too full of anxious striving. I am now learning to pay attention with ease. To realize that The Now comes to you, you don’t hike uphill to it. Presence can become a habit as close as instinct. Like breathing in and breathing out.
The work of Tara Sophia Mohr at Wise Living is a big part of “Team Rachelle” right now. She’s one of the soulcare specialists I turn to when that niggling feeling hits the back of my throat. “Seek guidance,” it whispers. And I check in with Tara. Lately, she and I are often feeling the same hum. We write about the same theme within days of each other. We look for ways to cross-pollinate. She always gets there a few steps before me. She always says it better. This is not me belitting myself. This is the god’s-honest truth, and I’m happy to stand under it. I’m grateful for her presence in my virtual world. Although we both offer coaching, I’m telling you right now. You should hire her.
Today Tara made us this offering. It’s a lesson the Universe is asking us to absorb. Through our pores. Into our core — where we will most likely find, it is already there — only unseen, only unacknowledged. All we have to do is Pay Attention, my friends.
Much Warmth,
Rachelle
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Epiphany: Finding Your Guiding Star (a podcast meditation)
Posted in Magpie Girl
Tags: tara sophia mohr, the art of noticing, the presence project |
4 comments
lol – I thought I was the only one who talked about cross-pollinating!
xo
spoke to my broken, grieving soul this morning, rachelle. deeply grateful…
Hola Rachelle, I just discovered your site and am loving it. This post is so appropriate as I constantly preach living in the moment around my house. There is no place like the present. Nothing as important as the moment we’re living. I’m glad I found you and your place. :)
Thanks for pay attention. I always like to follow along with where you’re going. Being in the present brings to mind this contrast between me and my son. Here’s an example: we sit together during homework. it’s all struggle, stalling, delay, labor…then, finally we are done and he is all bounces and jumps, running and skipping. I, on the other hand, am stuck in all that struggle we just went through, dragging and irritated. Oh, to rebound so quickly – that is a gift of childhood I’d like to reclaim.
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