A pinpoint of awareness

From "Several Short Sentences About..." by Verlyn Klinkenborg

Is it possible to practice noticing?
I think so.
But I also think it requires a suspension of yearning
And a pause in the desire to be pouring something out of yourself.
Noticing is about letting yourself out into the world,
Rathing than siphoning the world into you
In order to transmute it into words.

Practing noticing will also help you learn more about patience
And the nature of your mind.
Noticing means thinking with all your senses.
It's also an exercise in not writing.

So what is noticing?
A pinpoint of awareness,
The detail that stands out amid all the details.
It's catching your sleeve on the thorn of the thing you notice
And paying attention as you free yourself.

What do you notice? Whatever you notice.
Behavior, thought, overheard words, light, resemblance,
Emotion, totality, particularity,
Whatever you find in the habitat of your perceptions,
Anything, no matter how minute,
Whether you're working or reading or taking the subway.
The pattern is particular to you,
An element in what gets construed as "style."

Rushing to notice never works,
Nor does trying to notice.
Attention requires a cunning passivity.

Let yourself wonder why this thing, this instant, this suddennes, caught your attention.
What you're noticing isn't only what struck you.
It's also how your mind, your attention, gets from place to place,
From the steady current of your thoughts to their sudden interruption.

Notice what you notice and let it go.