You probably have tools that you notice and tools you overlook.
There are tools that it’s always a pleasure to use, that took effort to acquire, that came at a price that you weighed before you paid. These are the tools you pay attention to – that you feel satisfaction in holding, that you take care of when using, that you naturally make the effort to maintain and improve. Tools that you put back in their places when you’re done.
We can’t pay attention to everything. But what would it mean to pay more care and attention to the tools you overlook? To notice them, to see them as the essentials that they often are – as gifts that, taken collectively at least, you really can’t do without. A bit more care, a bit more maintenance, and you might find more to value.
Care and attention don’t just enable you to recognise value that’s already there and to maintain it. They’re creative: when you pay attention and take care, you’re also making and bestowing value.
Coda
There are people you pay attention to, and people you don’t.