My wife could tell you many stories of times I have been woefully unobservant. There are stories of not noticing businesses present or absent, houses or landscaping changed significantly, not to mention all the little things a husband ought to notice but doesn’t always succeed in doing.
So it’s a bit serendipitous when I do notice something that isn’t the main focus of what I’m doing. Take, for instance, what happens when I finish writing a blog post here and publish it. WordPress opens a little side window with some stats and a brief quote – most often about writing. For a long while, I didn’t notice them. They were almost like a banner ad on a web page that the mind just doesn’t see any more.
About two weeks ago, however, I started reading the quotes. Some were quite good. Then I decided to capture them in a document – one more motivation to write a post nightly because that is the only way I can get a new one to read.
Let me share a few with you:
“To send a letter is a good way to go somewhere without moving anything but your heart.” — Phyllis Theroux
“Words, once they are printed, have a life of their own.” — Carol Burnett
“Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.” — Author Unknown
“I do not like to write – I like to have written.” — Gloria Steinem
“The first step in blogging is not writing them but reading them.” — Jeff Jarvis
“I love being a writer. What I can’t stand is the paperwork.” — Peter De Vries
“Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.” — Isaac Asimov
Those are all thoughtful, good quotes about something important to me – writing. I would have missed them all if I didn’t take a moment along the way to notice the little things outside the center of my vision. I wonder how much else I have missed in 55 years?
Leap year lesson #51 is Notice the little things along the way.
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