1000 Flowers for the Planet - #528 Give Pure Attention
Recently I
was sitting in a local café watching the people. Across from me sat two women
and a small girl about 1 or 2 years old (not speaking using proper words yet,
so young). The mother went off to the ladies while her friend sat with the
child. She spent the whole time scrolling through her phone while the little
girl repeatedly showed her something in her hand, stretching it out for the
woman to see and making a googoo sound. The woman repeated the googoo sound
followed by ‘yes’, but never once looked up from her phone. The child was
persistent but pleasant and never got upset or screeched. The woman was just as
persistent with her scrolling. What the child learned from that adult was that
people don’t engage with eye contact and she was not worth connecting with. How
sad.
When anyone
politely seeks your attention, give it to them, but give it to them with your
whole mind and body. Engage with people fully. Look them in the eyes and listen
with both your ears. Hear what they are saying and see what they are showing.
So much is expressed through body movement, but this language will be as
forgotten as Latin if we continue to fail to engage properly. Give pure attention to everyone around you,
learn how to disconnect from the phone and the virtual world and connect with
the real world. It has a lot more to
give. Give back to it.
1 comment:
This is so very true, Margaret, and equally important is to give pure attention when you're ON the phone. How often do you try to hold a phone conversation with a person who, by their answers and responses, is obviously doing other things (watching tv on mute, checking fb on computer, writing other notes etc)??
Post a Comment