Not Noticing the Woolly Blue Aphids

Not Noticing the Woolly Blue Aphids

What else am I not noticing?

Noticing as a mystery. How is it that we notice one thing but not another? Why do I notice something new one day but another? Noticing may not seem like a way to save the world, but it is certainly a vital first step – at least according to Buddhist thought:

As long as we are noticing we are practising. Commit to just notice without doing something. We might think ‘what’s the point of being aware if I’m not going to change anything?’- but things do change. It changes because of a change in our attitude. [1]

Now I may not be Buddhist, but I am sure they are onto something important, as this little tale about the Woolly Blue Aphid will make clear. My wife has been visiting the family cottage her whole life. I started going there 45 years ago. We have been there at all seasons. And yet… we never noticed the Woolly Blue Aphids – which come out to fly and mate by the millions in the Fall. The mate around Thanksgiving and we have been there many times either just before or just Thanksgiving and yet…we have “saw” them until this year. How very odd. Once we started noticing them, we saw them everywhere.

Just for fun I’ll share exactly what happened, as I think it will inform us on how we can first notice, and then notice different things that can make a difference to improve not only our lives but the life of the planet. Life had been very busy at home, as our daughter lives with us and she has a 2 year old and twins born 6 weeks ago. We went to the cottage to relax and just “be”. Well, it worked. The test of that is that on our first afternoon, with the sun shining through the pine trees at a low angle, I saw what looked like white poplar seeds – which are like white fluff – floating and reflecting the sunlight. I stopped. I noticed. I took the time to really look. That’s when I saw, for the first time, that these “seeds” were moving up and down, and around in circles and that as I looked I saw more and more of them.

This has made me wondour: what else am I not noticing?

Here are some tests you can take to see how well you are noticing what is really in front of you, rather than going into auto-pilot mode, our default setting. Count the numbers of F’s in the following passage:

Finished Files Are the Result

Of Years of Scientific Study

Combined With the Experience

Of Years.

Now try this & see if you notice anything odd:

How many F’s did you count? If you are normal you counted 3 or 4. There are 6.

What did you see that was odd in the words in the 3 triangles. If you are normal – nothing. But the last word of every 2^nd line was repeated in the 3^rd line. Ooops!

So, here’s my thought: I am sure there is LOTS of really good news and lots of really good people doing really good things. We just need to notice. We just need to join them. That’s not to say the world is not going to H— in a handbasket – it is – but that there is light at the end of tunnel. We are part of the story of Life and Life on Earth has bounced back from disaster and disaster, and even thrived and evolved in more complex forms because of it. Think Snowball Earth. Think Permian Mass extinction. Throw a species extinction event and more species- eventually [after a lot of death] – evolve. Our task is to notice not the dark tunnel – but the light at the end of tunnel. Life goes on, and by noticing Life – that is, activities that go against Entropy – thoughts and activities and emotions that don’t destroy but heal – you become part of the journey of Life that is like the Pheonix bird arising from the ashes.

So, what can you do? Start noticing. All it takes is slowing down and not being so busy but living in THIS moment. Realize you are often on auto-pilot and say to yourself: “Oops” – enough of that, enough of habitual, reflexive, unconsciousness. Live consciously. Live to learn. Live to change. Live to accept what you can’t change and focus on what you can change. Even if you feel as small as a woolly blue aphid – you matter, you are part of the story of Life and can make yourself part of the light at the end of the tunnel instead of the darkness of despair and denial.

 

References

1. https://buddhawithin.org.uk/2020/03/12/why-noticing-is-enough/

2. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/metacognition-and-the-mind/201806/why-we-stop-noticing-the-world-around-us