I was in a line the other day waiting to pay for something,
when I overheard a wife begrudgingly nudge her husband with her elbow saying to
him, “You’re next, pay attention.” He glanced at her, and with a wry smile
replied, “Sweetheart, I am too poor to pay attention.”
That got me to thinking; if we were to place a concrete value
on paying attention, just what would that value be? Thus far, it has always
been an expression used as a means to invoke purpose into our daily lives, but
really, just what is the cost of paying attention? If you are like me, you realize that paying
attention is an attendant that never sleeps. It always awaits right around the
next corner for you to cease from paying attention so that it may insert some
form of unexpected delays, snafu’s, or mishaps into our lives. Paying attention
means that your focus is now on the minutes, sometimes the very seconds as they
sweep in some sort of never-ending race across the face of your watches and
clocks, rather than merely the hours of the day. Paying attention forces you to
take in every facet of your surroundings, examining them for meaning and
purpose. Paying attention does not let
you lose sight of all that you hope to accomplish, hope to see, or hope to do.
When it comes to the lives of others, paying attention
allows you to clearly communicate how much those others mean to you, and at the
same time monitor their sincerity and interests toward you. Paying attention allows you to accomplish
with confidence, simple random acts of kindness that in turn help people
appreciate your existence in their lives.
Consider this; if you are a parent, paying attention means
that you are emblazing in your mind every single “da-da” every single smile,
every single tear, and every single time your children wrap their tiny arms
around your neck. If you are a parent,
paying attention means that you, not “oops” reigns in your household and that
you are able to easily ensure the well-being of those children because of it.
Paying attention means that you care to have distinct and bitter-sweet memories
of their constant growth, as they leave the footie-pajamas for clothes that
must be deemed as “cool” by their peers.
Paying attention means that you can clearly recall the times you were up
all night, changing diapers, bed-sheets, clothes, and exchanging them for
memories that you now find yourself laughing about. Paying attention in a child’s life means that
you are grateful for the past, joyful in the present, and excited for the
future of what your child is to be.
If you are a spouse, paying attention means that as you see
Father-Time slowly marking his days by the lines on your face, you can still
appreciate all the times of love, struggle, victory, defeat, and a greater
sense of purpose and companionship you have spent with your loved one. Paying
attention means that you can sense before it is spoken when your loved one is
ill, frustrated, sad, joyful, excited or withdrawn. Paying attention means that even in parting,
your memory will serve as a movie screen forever displaying your own life’s
“greatest moments”
If you are a family member, paying attention is a simple
tool to remember all the times both good and bad, and has served as a platform
much like a launching pad that has been the watchful teacher to show you the
way to go, or the way to defer from going down the same path. Paying attention allows you to say with
strong declaration, “I will go this way!”
So just what is the “cost” of paying attention? The cost is
dearly for some; for those who wish to live a life bursting with color,
excitement, vigor, and splendor. Paying attention allows you to make most of
the many mile markers that all of us encounter, and impress upon us the highest
form of intention.
To those whose days are but a foggy haze, the time to wake
is now and allow the bright rays of “paying attention” to penetrate your world and
illuminate your future.
