Up: [[Pay Attention MOC]] > [!Orbit] Jose Ortega y Gasset > Tell me what you pay attention to > and I will tell you who you are. > [!Orbit] Lunaea Weatherstone in *Tending Brigid’s Flame* > Living a spiritual and magical life comes down to two simple and profound elements: attention and intention. If you pour yourself a cup of coffee while reading your email and drink it without really tasting it, it will still warm you and give you a lift. If you take a moment to appreciate the beauty of the cup, the scent of the coffee, the pattern of the waft of steam arising from the surface, and the sensation of the liquid as it moves down your throat and becomes part of your body, you are moving in the direction of devotion…. > Now add intention to your attention. Your mundane intention is probably to wake up a bit through the judicious use of caffeine, but you can add a higher intention. Invoke [[Bride]]’s presence as you drink your brew and ask that it awaken your creativity, inspire you with eloquence, or help you focus on the day’s tasks ahead. (p.52) > [!Orbit] Cheri Huber > The quality of our lives is determined by the focus of our attention. > [!Orbit] Victoria Erickson in *Edge of Wonder* > I’m tired of long-term goals and rules. I want to set intentions instead, breathing and existing in this moment every step of the way. I’ve always written from my body rather than my head, and that’s exactly how I want to make my decisions: not from logic or emotion but from my very core itself. That’s where the real power lies, and also how we begin to free ourselves. (p.117) > [!Orbit] [[Oliver Burkeman]] in *Four Thousand Weeks* > …your experience of being alive consists of nothing other than the sum of everything to which you pay attention. (p.91) > [!Orbit] Louise De Salvo in *On Moving* > Humble tasks, when they involve acts of attention, become spiritual tasks. > [!Orbit] Sam Harris > What you really have is the quality of your mind in each moment, the freedom of your attention. Take full possession of that right now by relaxing your hold on everything else. > [!Orbit] Pat Wolfe > There is no such thing as not paying attention. The brain is always paying attention to something. > [!Orbit] William James > My experience is what I agree to attend to. > [!Orbit] James Williams (works on philosophy and ethics of technology at Oxford) > If we want to do what matters in any domain — any context in life — we have to be able to give attention to the right things…. If we can’t do that, it’s really hard to do anything. > [!Orbit] Elvis Presley > Values are like fingerprints. Nobody’s are the same, but you leave ‘em all over everything you do. > [!Orbit] [[Mary Oliver]] > To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work. > [!Orbit] [[Mary Oliver]] > Attention is the beginning of devotion. > [!Orbit] [[Mary Oliver]] in *Our World*, something she learned from her partner, Mary Malone Cook > Attention without feeling…is only a report. An openness — an empathy — was necessary if the attention was to matter. (p. 71) > [!Orbit] Henry Miller > The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself. > [!Orbit] Lauren Artress > What we nurture in our everyday lives shapes the state of our soul. > [!Orbit] Julia Margaret Cameron > The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention. > [!orbit] Julia Cameron in *The Artist’s Way* > … art is born in attention. Its midwife is detail. (p.21) > [!Orbit] Katherine May in *Enchantment* > Our sense of enchantment is not triggered only by grand things; the sublime is not hiding in distant landscapes. The awe-inspiring, the numinous, is all around us, all the time. It is transformed by our deliberate attention. It becomes valuable when we value it. It becomes meaningful when we invest it with meaning. The magic is of our own contouring. (p. 114) > [!Orbit] James Rennie in an 1857 personal journal > It can never be too strongly impressed upon a mind anxious for the acquisition of knowledge that the commonest things with which we are surrounded are deserving of minute and careful attention. > [!Orbit] Grant Faulkner > Our concentration consecrates the world around us; our attentiveness deepens what it regards. > [!Orbit] [[John O’Donohue]] in *Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom* > Many of us have made our world so familiar that we do not see it anymore. An interesting question to ask yourself at night is, ‘What did I really see this day?’ (p.61-62) > [!Orbit] R.D. Laing > The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. > [!Orbit] [[Tara Leaver]] > The key thing is to notice what you notice. The more we train ourselves to look out for images, shapes, colours, and whatever else catches our eye, the more we refine our artist eyes and the more our personal style begins to emerge and develop. > [!Orbit] Gary Zukav > We must be conscious of our intentions because who we are and the life we lead is directed and shaped by them.