giving your attention is a gift

It is the weekend in Canada when we are all reminded: give thanks.

As I think of the many, many things for which I am filled with thanks, the one that leaps forward today is the gift of attention. I am thankful that attention is a currency in which we are all rich: every waking moment, each of us has the opportunity to spend an equal amount of attention. As we do, we are rewarded with discovery, connection, invention, and more often than seems reasonable, different kinds of love.

And I am overwhelmed with thankfulness for the attention that other people give to me. Whenever someone holds me in their thoughts, or stops the voice inside their head to listen to my voice instead, they entrust me with a piece of their lives, a moment they cannot get back or reinvest. This is true of the friends that send an email when I most need to read it, the family who listen, the students who focus on my thoughts instead of their own. It is possible to imagine life without words: to imagine life without attention is too utterly lonely to contemplate. Even animals pay attention.

On this weekend when we remember to give thinks, I thank you - for the moments spent reading and making this connection.

Happy Thanksgiving.

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