Have you ever come across something that was abandoned? You probably didn’t need anyone to tell you it was abandoned, did you? Some things are simple, of course, such as buildings that are falling apart or old trails or closed businesses. Others are not so apparent. Nice homes and buildings can be abandoned, too. So can schools and hospitals and parks. But even if it’s not apparent, even if no one has told you, you can always tell when something has been abandoned.
It has that ghostly air about it. No matter how old and rickety a home might
be, if it is not abandoned, it doesn’t look abandoned. It doesn’t feel abandoned. But let something be abandoned, and very
quickly it develops that “lost” feeling.
All of the Earth seems to know it, too.
Animals know when something has been abandoned, and that’s why they
approach it so easily. They know. Plants know, too. They begin to grow on the abandoned
thing. Even molds and other fungi
know. They take hold much more readily
and quickly than they would in an inhabited place. The wind knows. It blows strangely on the abandoned thing
until it makes a hollow whistle. The
rain knows. It finds a way in, triumphant
now after having been boarded out for so long.
The longer something is abandoned, the more likely it will
stay abandoned and the more likely the animals, plants, fungi, wind, and rain
will descend on it until eventually it disappears completely. This, in turn, will magnify the abandoned
feeling for humans who happen to pass by.
And if, by chance, someone decides to re-inhabit a previously abandoned
place, a great deal of work must be done to restore it, and it is never quite
completely restored. The ghosts do not
want to leave so readily.
 |
| Abandoned. |
What we focus our attention on, grows and flourishes--whether
good or bad. What we remove our
attention from, withers and fades. It is
our attention, then, our focusing, that decides whether something is inhabited
or abandoned.
But is it true for things other than buildings and homes? How about relationships? If we focus on them, work on them, try,
compromise, talk, communicate, and move within them, they are inhabited. But have you ever gotten to the point where a
relationship simply could not work anymore?
What did you do? You removed your
focus and attention, and it was quickly abandoned. Then it faded and died.
How about goals and ideas?
When we focus on them, discuss them, place hope in them, work toward
them, and give them our attention, they grow and flourish. But when we change our mind, see something
differently, decide on a new path, the old goals and ideas are quickly
abandoned. They disappear into history.
And is it the same, then, for philosophies? Religions?
Public policies? Systems of
government? Societies? I think it is.
What we focus our attention on, grows and flourishes. We are the creators. We breathe life into things. We make things happen. When we remove our attention, things quickly
crumble and fade--much quicker than they should, much quicker than they were
supposedly built to withstand. But it is
not the substance of a thing that makes it a thing, it is our notice of it that
brings it into existence and our denial of it that erases it.
Great care, then, should be taken in our everyday thoughts,
in what we decide to focus upon, in what we decide to bring to life or abandon. The entire world (what we can see of it)
depends on our subjectivity. Focus on
things as alive and vibrant, and life pours into them. Remove the focus, and life leaves. Just imagine what you could do. Add other people to the equation, and the creative
force compounds astronomically.
And this is why there are so many distractions placed before
us to command our attention and divert our focus, because if it were otherwise,
we could change the world overnight.
