“To stay eager, to connect, to find interest in the everyday, to notice what everybody else overlooks — these are vital skills and noble goals. They speak to the difference between looking and seeing, between hearing and listening, between what the world presents and noticing what matters to you.”
Rob Walker, “The Art of Noticing“*, pIX
In any location we’re looking at a huge number of things, most of which our brains slide past and ignore. We see “grass”, not every single blade. We view “clouds” as a collection in the sky unless there’s something unusual such as one dark with rain threatening to fall or a shape that reminds us of something else. It’s a “stone wall” not a vertical arrangement of individual stones.
I don’t think there’s a trick to noticing; it’s deliberately slowing down and picking out sections or elements in whatever your eyes are pointed at. It doesn’t need to be a new location, there are inevitably overlooked things in familiar locations and seasonal changes.
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