"The easiest way to get present is to sing because you can't move to the next not til you finish the one you singing."
A friend shared this quote from Anne Lamont's book Somehow: Thoughts on Love, and I agree with that statement. Singing is one of the activities that focuses me; it gathers all of the wayward parts of me that are fretting over the future or stewing over the past into one moment of breath and sound.
Creating music with others lifts me from self-centeredness to open awareness of what is happening right now. Right. Now. I don't know about you, but Right Now, right in front of me, it is one of the most challenging places to find on the map. Don't you love being human? Being present is being intentional with my attention; it is choosing to be with what is in front of me.
In this aggressively distracting world, attention is a superpower. Our attention protects us and others, leads us to solutions, and is the nose of our curiosity.
In her fabulously titled book How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy, author Jenny Odell spends a lot of time exploring attention.
"I've also learned that patterns of attention— what we choose to notice and what we do not— are how we render reality for ourselves and thus have a direct bearing on what we feel is possible at any given time."
While the Lamont quote mentions singing, I don't think this kind of attention is just for singers. This quality of being in the moment can extend to any activity. So I leave you with an assignment to track your attention and rest in the now. Yep, rest in the now! Roll around in it and make a (s)now angel in the delicious present. Undoubtedly, it will be a challenging practice and at times--not very pretty, but know that I will be practicing right along with you!
Check out my calendar for upcoming shows. A few tickets are still available for the Traditions show in Olympia on June 15th!
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