Paying Attention

Enjoy the little things for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.
~Robert Brault

One of the unexpected pleasures of getting back into my artwork has been that I have found myself noticing my surroundings in ways that I didn’t when I was too busy with other things. Now that I am painting and drawing again, I’m much more likely to stop and examine a certain cloud in the sky or a flower in my garden or a passing couple holding hands. I feel like I appreciate the life and beauty around me so much more.

Frederick Beuchner talks about FRAMING THE MOMENT in an entry about art:

“From the simplest lyric to the most complex novel and densest drama, literature is asking us to pay attention. Pay attention to the frog. Pay attention to the west wind. Pay attention to the boy on the raft, the lady in the tower, the old man on the train. In sum, pay attention to the world and all that dwells therein and thereby learn at last to pay attention to yourself and all that dwells therein. The painter does the same thing, of course.”

“Literature, painting, music – the most basic lesson that all art teaches us is to stop, look, and listen to life on this planet, including our own lives, as a vastly richer, deeper, more mysterious business than most of the time it ever occurs to us to suspect as we bumble along from day to day on automatic pilot.”

Automatic pilot is a familiar mode for getting through the day as we drive the kids to school, make the bed (yet again), cross off our list of to-dos, head to work. But God intended so much more for us. Framing the moment snaps us out of automatic pilot and engages us in a relationship of shared moments with God, with our children, our spouses, our friends and family that become memories (small and large) tucked away and cherished.

The boys in the picture above are from an old photo of 2 of my nephews. Now that they are grown-ups, I'm so glad that I have so many cherished memories of them as children and all the fun we had together. In some ways, I will always see them like this, even when I see them now with their own families. Photos like this one frame a moment in time, but I look at it and remember how darn cute and full of energy they were. This first batch of grandkids were all boys (four of them in all) before many wonderful others (girls included) joined us. For me, having older siblings, they were almost like brothers that I didn't get disgusted with. :0) These four boys arrived when I was 12-21 years old and I'm glad that even when I was a teenager and they were children, I was smart enough to pay attention to how wonderful they were and fully enjoy any time we had together. It would have been very easy for me to be caught up in my own stuff, but I just always loved them so darn much. Still do.