Cloud 006 - Noticing

no·tic·ing 

Becoming aware of something or someone

Seeing is selective. Our eyes may be open but we can’t see everything because there’s too much to process, so we choose to see what we want to see, what fits in our paradigm and our belief system. Inevitably, by doing so, we also miss out on a lot of things until someone else helps us notice something different. 

When I was a little kid sitting at the doctor’s office for my annual check up, I noticed something : I remember looking up at the illustrations of little kids on the wall and realizing that none of them had brown skin like me. My parents had brown skin,  my doctor had brown skin, but all the kids on the picture had light skin. So I asked the doctor “Why aren’t there any little kids like me on the wall?”. I don’t remember what he said exactly, something about not noticing it. But on my next visit, some of the pictures were different and there were a couple pictures of little kids that looked like me on the wall. The doctor made a point to proudly show me that all the kids were now included  on the walls. That moment made me realize that speaking up about things I notice can actually help because even though we all look at the same thing, we don’t see the same thing. 

There is so much things to process that we naturally and unconsciously select things to see and things not to see. Me noticing something that didn’t feel right and saying something about it, created a positive change, not only for me, but for all the little kids and their parents that would visit the office as well as the doctor. I learned early on that when we notice something that doesn’t feel right, it’s important to do something about it to make it better, because chances are, it’s affecting a lot of other people who may not realize why because they didn’t notice it. 

The fact that you noticed something is a call to action to improve things and help others. Some times it’s easy, some times it’s hard. But there’s always opportunities to do good by acting on something that caught your attention. It could be something as simple as noticing that someone is struggling opening the door with all their grocery bags and helping them by holding the door for them, or smiling at a stranger who’s seems overwhelmed with their crying baby in the bus, or that a coworker has been missing for an unusual amount of time. This card is an invitation to pay attention to the little things you notice and what your inner voice is inviting you to do about it. Pay attention to what you notice and what jumps out at you. Ask yourself if there’s something you can do to make it better.