Remember to Attend

I'm a very internally-focussed person.   I've often driven somewhere and then realised I didn't remember the journey.  Bill can tell you which airports we flew in/out/through for many of our journeys; I might remember one in five after he's described the whole thing to me.  I think I'm a lousy housekeeper because I simply don't see the mess until I shake myself out of my daze and focus.  It gets worse if I'm stressed:  I've been known to place the unopened tin of soup into the heated saucepan, the package of panty hose into the fridge, the peeled and chopped fruit into the compost bin and (nearly) the peelings into the bowl with the rest of the cake mix.  I'm not quite sure why all the examples happened in the kitchen.  It's probably the place I still need to think about what I'm doing to have a successful outcome.




So, one of the big benefits of this blog for me is that it causes me to use my camera more often and consequently to notice my world more.  



I like the way the word 'attend' has so many positive uses, particularly definitions 2, 3 , 5 and 6:

attend [əˈtɛnd]  vb 

1. to be present at (an event, meeting, etc.)

2. (when intr, foll by to) to give care; minister

3. (when intr, foll by to) to pay attention; listen

4. (tr; often passive) to accompany or follow a high temperature attended by a severe cough

5. (intr; foll by on or upon) to follow as a consequence (of)

6. (intr; foll by to) to devote one's time; apply oneself to attend to the garden

7. (tr) to escort or accompany

8. (intr; foll by on or upon) to wait (on); serve; provide for the needs (of) to attend on a guest

9. (tr) Archaic to wait for; expect

10. (intr) Obsolete to delay

[from Old French atendre, from Latin attendere to stretch towards, from tendere to extend]

Bill asked if I had made resolutions this year, given I mentioned a plan to do a long run in the next couple of days.   ('Long' is a very relative term, but I have to start somewhere).  I said I had only gone so far as some good intentions:  exercise, sew, un-clutter.  All of those require me to use various definitions of the verb attend.

I sat down with these photos intending to write about remembering to notice beauty, but all by itself quite a different post developed.  Perhaps this is something I'm supposed to 'hear'.