Responding to a quote by Mary Oliver:

“Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.”

We come roaring out of our mother's womb, bloody and screaming, our minds a blank slate of nature. For the next 10 or so years, however long it takes for the sense of our presence in this world to set in and the novelty of life to fade away... we just experience. We pay attention, astonished by everything as we newly experience it, and relay proudly to our parents/guardians our stories of the spotted frog we met down by the creek or the penny we found in the sidewalk crack. 

These simple instructions for life set out by Mary Oliver encompass these first fresh years of life but fail to recognize the accomplishments, ambitions, and personality each of us develops over the years. It shrouds the complications and hardships, lifelong or fleeting, that make these 3 simple steps so much more complex.

"Pay attention" at first means exactly what it says. As a child, I paid attention to the changing seasons, to the hypnotic grooves on Telluride, Colorado’s aspen trees, and the brilliant painting of orange and yellow that their leaves made when basked in alpenglow. 'Pay attention' for me often just meant a keen eye, picking up buttons and rocks and interesting leaves off the ground, spotting a grey plush bunny in an alleyway that I insisted on taking home to clean up and soon dubbed my favorite toy.

But soon enough, 'pay attention' morphs from enjoying an outside environment into looking inward. For me, this meant finding my strengths in art, reading, and analysis. It meant paying close attention to my form in tennis and the steps in dance, paying attention to how these things might forge my path forward.

‘Be astonished’ is perhaps what shifts most throughout the transition from childhood to adulthood. Creativity and enthusiasm are rewarded in early childhood, but there's a sort of sense that it should stay there and we should grow into seriousness. In a world of predictability and comfortable routine, there isn't anything astonishing for older kids my age about Zoom classes online work, or the world of technology in general. Since technology and a comforting routine are our crutches during COVID-19, it's more important than ever to stay astonished, to stay reacting and learning. 

‘Tell about it’ is perhaps the only part of these 3-step instructions that adults do better than children. It's the only one we're taught to build on in its simplest form. We're taught how to give presentations and how to write essays, and we're given books that inspire us to share our own thoughts. Communication is one of humanity's shining features. On the individual level, children are taught how to speak up through school. But as a collective, social media and the news are constantly evolving communication to be faster and more in-depth. It’s a whole new way to help us pay attention to the world… but makes it all the more difficult to be astonished when you have pictures of the world photoshopped to look better than it is at your fingertips. The balance to these 3 steps is slowly slipping, with an emphasis on communication and a failing in astonishment, in appreciation. Take a few minutes today to notice the little things, really appreciate them, and I’ll do the same.

More writing to come :)