seeing and touching and hearing, oh my!

okay, "seeing and touching and hearing" doesn't roll off of one's tongue in the same way "lions and tigers and bears" seems to...  how did those before us who lived in less media-saturated environments ever communicate without random pop-culture references?  it must've been tough.

back to my sensory (rather than carnivorous) "oh my!"...

someone suggested to me that i try to notice things around me.  on some level this is a ridiculous thing to ask me to do... i am far too aware of details.  the point is, i think, that in noticing these things i will somehow settle down from anxious moments and remember that the world around me is still there, that i'm still here and that here is now.

tonight i tried it.  once my house guest was tucked into my bed i pulled out the futon and turned off the ceiling light and tried to pay attention to the mundane.

at first i shut my eyes then realized i couldn't exactly see very well with my eyes closed.  ha! admitting that shot a beatles lyric into my brain: "Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see. It's getting hard to be someone but it all works out. It doesn't matter much to me." (Strawberry Fields Forever).

anyway, i opened my eyes and stared at the ceiling fan for a while.  i turned my head for a second to the left and saw the piano, but the piano is a bit of an anxiety-inducer so i ended up shutting my eyes again.  did i fail at "seeing"?  onto "feeling"...  since there are three fans on there is quite a bit of air moving around the living room.  i could feel the roughness of the fur of my lifelong friend mr. teddy, his leg is resting under my ear.   i could feel the coolness of the air as the air conditioner started to take over the room's temperature.  and "hearing"... the hardest and easiest part of this sensory "oh my!".  as a musician i try very hard to listen to the nuances of life.  music is, i believe, simply sound organized in time.  but, can i simply hear without analysis?  i heard the fans and the air conditioner (rather obvious).  stella was in the hallway fussing about something, she's got such a big mouth for such a little cat.  i could hear the television and my cellphone alerting me that someone had sent a text message.

after attempting my sensory "oh my!" experiment i felt like a bit of a dolt.  i didn't notice anything spectacular.  is that the point?  is it just about being reminded of the mundane?  maybe realizing there isn't a thing to realize is the best realization to have...