Notice me, notice you.

I’ll start with a quote and a video from one of my favourite poet.
She’s someone I can resonate really well with.

“I’ve always been very observant; I’d rather listen than speak. It’s overwhelming, the amount of detail I see in really mundane scenarios: strangers touching one another; arguing on the phone; a man falling asleep on the train. I’ll fill in the gaps of the story myself. In my mind, I’ll follow them home, I’ll imagine their childhood, what their bedroom looks like, if they are in love with someone who does not love them. The downfall is that i give everything (and everyone) meaning. Sometimes a thing is vacant and I’ll create depth for it; that’s not always fair.” – Warsan Shire

I believe this quote is really relevant to the course reading (The discipline of noticing), it speaks great length of my thought process on how I see things. Rarely these days do we come up with a decision that is partial. Our thoughts are often plagued by certain ideologies and preconceived notions of certain things, we are judgmental and we try to justify ourselves with our own set of ideals most of the time. Our bodies regulate to what is “expected” of us and often, we turn a blind eye to little details and the “insignificant” things.

In the reading, Immanual Kant indicates that intentional noticing is necessary and that in order to become aware of the successions of experiences, we not only have to reflect on what we’ve noticed, but to be in it as well. Noting that in mind, reflective practice requires “living in” the moment and not just mere attendance. While experiential learning is all about learning from experiences, when we start “noticing” things, we are not only able to apprehend what has been done, but are able to make informed choices for the future as well.

“The thing that seems so salient and important at that time recedes into distant memory. Perhaps, never to re-appear.”  – I think we’re all guilty of this. Taking everything for granted, people complain constantly about having an outdated model of a car or phone when we should just be grateful we that have these things in the first place. We complain about the insurmountable workload from school, but what do we get out of all of that? Knowledge. Experience. Skills. Likewise, in relationships. You really do not know the good you have it until it’s gone.

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