In many respects, all we have in this life is our attention. We’re shaped by what we pay attention to. Our lives are the result of what we pay attention to.
My current favorite read is Eric Booth’s book, The Everyday Work of Art. Booth writes on page 61: “If our experience of being alive is the most valuable thing, then what we pay attention to becomes a critical choice, and developing how we notice becomes the most important thing we can do.”
In Waiting for God, the philosopher Simone Weil wrote that paying attention to another was an act of love.
Makes sense to me.