May I Please Have Your Attention

Lately, I’ve been looking around in every nook and cranny for - hey, wouldn’t that be a great tv show? Nook and Cranny: a feisty pair of octogenarian detectives solve crimes the old fashioned way. You know, with ingenuity, gumption, and maybe a set of encyclopedias? Nook, an older, sassier Jessica Fletcher, trips bad guys with her walker and Cranny? She wears a rumpled beige raincoat over her cardigan and at the end of every episode, pauses and says, “just one more thing,” only to add, “you go ahead, I’m going to rest a minute.” After cracking the case, Nook and Cranny catch the early bird special and … wait a minute, what I was saying? Oh yeah. Lately, I’ve been looking around for where I lost my focus. 

Listen, I have a lot of good thoughts, they’re just not where I left them. It seems my stream of consciousness has flooded and often I’m paddling upstream just to remember the end of a sentence. The one I’m in the middle of saying. 

I don’t know about you, but I could be securely at my desk, seemingly buckled in for another few hours of work, when all of a sudden I'm folding laundry. Thank goodness I’m working from home because that’d be awkward at the office.

And I’m not alone. It’s comforting to know this brain fog isn’t limited to just me. Not naming names, but the other day, my husband put the milk away in a drawer.

Experts say to blame this increased lack of focus on the pandemic. Research shows extended periods of stress and anxiety create a ceaseless pressure that negatively impacts our concentration. Remember that old commercial with the fried egg, “this is your brain on drugs”? Well, this lack of focus is our brain in a pandemic. Wait! Did I leave a frying pan on the stove?

Long before the word Covid and the number 19 entered our daily vernacular, smartphone scrolling already had eroded our ability to concentrate. An article in Time said we now have a shorter attention span than a goldfish. And that was in 2015! What is it now? A goldfish made by Pepperidge Farm?

And what are we scrolling? Usually a deluge of bad news. Just reading NPR’s online report about “doomscrolling” made me depressed. Well, until I clicked an eye-catching ad. Who knew NPR had a wine club? Seriously, you didn’t expect me to finish the article did you? After all, I’ve got an attention-span of a cracker.

Interestingly, I’ve experienced something distinctly contrary and surprising amidst the ramble. Instantaneous sensations of appreciation. As if my brain, in its nomadic state, was taking stock repeatedly. Whether my eye landed on my relentlessly trusty mechanical pencil, or the pink sea salt I sprinkled on my plate, or the daybreak I did nothing to make happen - all of it registered as remarkable. My wandering focus bloomed into a wondering one.

It’s no wonder this happened. The sheer act of recognizing something can appreciate the value of the thing itself. It was the stopping what I’m doing and seeing what’s around me that caused this new level of appreciation. Who knew my skimpy attention span would reveal what’s been hiding all along between the cracks of my previously intense focus and “get ‘er done” mentality. There’s just room for the appreciation to come out now.

I’m inspired to celebrate this unexpected perk of my meandering focus by channeling Detective Cranny. In her Columbo-esque way, I shall continue to pause and say, “just one more thing,” only to add, “wow.”