The Noticer

This morning, with just a hint of Fall in the air and the skys finally showing patches of blue, I finished the most amazing book: The Noticer.

This book was one that the Ladies Group at church picked for one of their summer Book Club reads (the other was The Shack, which I did not read), and we'll be meeting to discuss this book on Wednesday.  But this book was amazing.  My copy was bought new, has only been read once, but is covered in highlights, notes, underlines, circles -- and the spine is well worn.

The bottom line?  Life is all about perspective.  And gaining some good perspective will make the biggest difference in the direction of your life.

I wanted to share a few of the highlights/underline/notes that I made:

"Think with me here... Everybody wants to be on the mountaintop, but if you'll remember, mountaintops are rocky and cold.  There is no growth on the top of a mountain.  Sure, the view is great, but what's a view for?  A view just gives us a glimpse of our next destination -- our next target.  But to hit that target, we must come off the mountain, go through the valley, and begin to climb the next slope.  It is in the valley that we slog through the lush grass and rich soil, learning and becoming what enables us to summit life's next peak."

How often I have directed my life to reach "the mountain top"!  To get to this high and lofty earthly place.  But why?  Why is that where I want to be?  After reading this, I realize I don't want to reach the top of the mountain as my goal.  And maybe we need to reverse our thinking about the good times and the bad times.  Maybe the bad times should be associated with the top of the mountain -- where we are largely isolated and removed, left cold in a desolate place that can't even sustain growth.  And yet we're closest to God when we're in the bad times -- another reason why they should be associated with mountain tops -- because they're physically closer to the earthly description of heaven.

So now I don't want to climb the mountain and reach the highest peak -- I want to live in the valley, protected from storms by the mountains, surrounded by dense and fruitful growth.  All the while maintaining my relationship with God.

"Whatever you focus upon, increases."

My worries increase when I focus on them.  My patient's pain increases when they focus on it.  Needs, wants, hunger, boredom, discontent, anger, frustration -- so very true.

"When you focus on the things you need," he went on to explain, "you'll find those needs increasing.  If you concentrate your thoughts on what you don't have, you will soon be concentrating on other things that you had forgotten you don't have -- and feel worse! If you set your mind on loss, you are more likely to lose... But a grateful perspective brings happiness and abundance into a person's life."

"All people -- all lives -- are either in a crisis, coming out of a crisis, or headed for a crisis."

We are forever backpacking the Appalachian Trail -- up and down mountains, in and out of crisis, good times to bad.  Life is an ebb and flow -- regardless of how "well off" or "bad off" someone seems.  We need to recognize this fact and use this knowledge to change how we treat and approach people.  Treating everyone with a little more humanity will make the biggest difference in this world.

"It's time to stop letting your history control your destiny."

How many times we need to hear this fact!  It's like the song goes:

"A person consumed by worry can focus.  Isn't it obvious?  Worry is focus!  But it's focus on the wrong things."

Oh boy.  This one really hits home for me.  I, and pretty much my entire paternal side of the family, are worry warts.  I have to blame genetics, but it doesn't remove the fact that we focus on all the wrong things.  I really need to work on this -- so that when I begin worrying about something, I will consciously shift my focus.

"The seeds of depression cannot take root in a grateful heart."

They cannot.  Every time I've felt myself slipping into depressive tendencies (another bit of my paternal genetic inheritance), I've turned my focus to finding my blessings and focusing on them.  No matter how small or basic (including clean socks), it always works.

"Wisdom can be gathered in your downtime.  Wisdom that can change the very course of your life will come from the people you are around, the books you read, and the things you listen to or watch on radio or television." ---The power of influence

The power of influence.  Funny, because I read this chapter right after this message about the power of influence: Back to the Start: Influence

"A leaf is an indicator.  One can walk through the forest and never look up.  But you can pick up a single leaf and know all sorts of information about the tree you are under."

"Many of life's treasures remain hidden from us simply because we never search for them."

"Your big picture will never be a masterpiece if you ignore the tiny brushstrokes." 

So often we hear "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff."  But this book makes a convincing argument that the small stuff matters.  The small stuff makes up the big stuff, so to ignore it is guarantee failure/problems.  So start small to build big.  That's how they build a house!  They start piece by piece to create a mansion.

"Have you ever considered how often we judge ourselves by our intentions while we judge others by their actions?"

Stunning, isn't that question?  I was speechless.  How hypocritical we are by nature!

"Remember, forgiveness is an altogether different thing from trust or respect.  Forgiveness is about the past.  Trust and respect are about the future.  Forgiveness will be in the hands of others and can be given to you, but trust and respect are in your own hands... and they must be earned."

That's a tough difference to make...  We are not control of our earthly forgiveness.  But we are in control in our behavior and our actions that leads to trust and respect that will diminish the need for earthly forgiveness.

"No matter your past, you can choose your future."

Learn from the past.  Grow from it.  Move on from it.  Create the future you want.  Don't punish yourself for the rest of your life.

"One day, you will look back on this 'worst time' in your life as a fortuitous event.  Even your worst times have value and can become, in retrospect, your best times."

So. True.  The last two years were "awful" as I was living them.  But looking back, I can see what power those two years had for me.  And they weren't awful!