Attentiveness only deepens what it regards. – Jane Hirshfield
The idea seems obvious enough: where you spend your time you invest your life. But perhaps the actual message is even more subtle than that, perhaps this is a lesson in curiosity.
Complacency, monotony, rhythm- whatever name you give placidity the detrimental effect that it has on your life only compounds. It’s easy, to be continuously lazy. Sometimes, I’m guilty of it too. And no– I don’t think I have the energy for a go-go-go twenty-four hours seven days a week on the run kind of lifestyle, but I do have the energy to be continuously curious.
It’s a choice I made a while ago. Was it a conscious decision? I can’t be sure. In those first moments, I don’t think so, but I can say for a fact: today it is. For me, inquisitiveness has become a way of life.
Sometimes the curiosity is intrinsic: What makes me happy? What do I wish to accomplish from today? What can I do differently now that I didn’t yesterday? And sometimes the curiosity is extrinsic: I wonder what made him smile? I wonder where her mind goes when she is driving? How do humans find meaning in life?
Questions. My mind is filled with them, and no I don’t find it overwhelming, and no I don’t have the answers to most of them. I don’t think that will ever change, however, every now and then I do have the opportunity to ask, to wonder aloud; and then ever so often someone indulges me in a conversation about their own curiosities, and the cycle continues.
This is how I expand my attentiveness, deepen my depth of knowledge, overcome my placidity, and most importantly continuously indulge my curiosity.
