Attention!
I always thought attention needed tension in order for it to happen, but looking up the etymology of it, I now realise it’s not tension, but a sensitivity. A tenderness.
The current definition for attention is ‘to narrow our focus, applying the mind to something’. Further research reveals a fuller meaning to the word and perhaps more balanced. Attend means to be present at, to look after, to be present with. The etymology of this is ‘to stretch to, soft’. Which leads to ‘thin- slender, fine drawn, narrow, slight, delicate, stretch, extend’ and this then leads to ‘Tenant- to hold, have possession of, holder (of land)’ and the etymology is ‘to stretch, extend’.
Maybe it’s a coincidence but this exploration of the word attention has lead right to where my attention is currently going, to land.
It’s been a very hot summer and things are dry here. The animals are looking for water and nature is really front and centre in my mind. It has all my attention! Now that I know the etymology of the word has a softness to it, this makes more sense to me as I’ve also been interested in my Celtic ancestral myths and stories.
Going way back to these stories from another hemisphere and land, it seems that a lot of the stories lead to the land and the connection with it through the feminine and giving the land our attention. Observing it, asking questions of it, conversing with it and most of all, being open and listening to it. The stories talk about how abundant and beautifully generous the earth is, and for us as humans to take only what we need. If we take any more, the wells dry up, the abundance is gone and the life sucked dry. The way to connect again is through tenderness, compassion and enchantment through story.
Looking around the patch of the earth I’m lucky enough to be part of looking after, I see that I’m living on a land in the southern hemisphere educated by stories, celebrations and myths from the northern hemisphere. It’s quite apparent during this hot hot summer that this is a Leo time of year, yet Leo is in July and August right when it’s coldest in Australia. We’re heading towards the next collective holiday which is Easter, with the fertile symbols of the bunny and eggs, but it will be going into autumn when the world and fertility in it slow down to get ready for winter… kind of like the celebration of Halloween. To the rest of the (western) world, Australia is ‘down under’ and it feels a bit like that when the stories and collective celebrations I’ve been bought up on are from the northern hemisphere. It all feels a bit topsy turvy.
When I give the land more of my attention, my tenderness, my presence, to stretch to it, to soften to it, to extend my self to it, maybe then I’ll start to be a tenant of it. To look after it, to feel part of it, to hear the stories of this land and the people and animals of this land, to be present with it and them, to hold them and have them hold me.
Where is your attention going today? :D
