Noticing Good

If you are busy
noticing good
you cannot feel bad.

Notice how the birds chirp
early in the morning
in the spring.
Notice how the fresh
raspberries taste,
tart-sweet, tender
with a softly
spiky crunch.
Notice the vivid
fire engine red
geraniums strutting
in the window box.
Notice the rain
nourishing the soil,
sluicing down
in rivulets,
soaking in.
Notice that
the projected rain
did not come
on moving day.
Notice all the help
others give to you,
lightening your load,
by doing what you cannot.
Notice what you
are able to supply,
creating reasons for
others to be thankful.
Notice the cat
curled contentedly
in the sun, dreaming
of days of prowess.
Notice the guests
being right on schedule,
even though their
drive was long.
Notice all the young
whippersnappers
bouncing into school
with their backpacks bulging.
Notice the fully stocked
shelves in the grocery,
stuffed with vegetables
flowing in from
all over the world.
Notice that accomplished
jazz saxophone riff,
and marvel at the
unique ability, confidence,
and freedom it takes
to improvise.

There are infinite vignettes
of things that
could be appreciated
in any given moment.

How squirrels hop
in the wet grass,
how the carpet feels
to bare toes,
how seeds disperse
in the breeze,
how swinging skirts
flutter as you walk,
how sumptuously luscious
broiled halibut can be,
how ingenious
paper clips are,
how lungs pump air
while you are running,
how true it is that
thoughts become things.

If I insist,
“Don’t think about
chocolate ice cream,”
immediately you are
thinking about it,
so cool and creamy,
and you are now salivating.
Now consider when you say,
“I do not feel well,”
and if that’s what you are
preoccupied by and focused on
then guess what,
you’ll get more of that.
Don’t try not to think of it
because that doesn’t work.

Instead, however,
if you shift your attention
to what is good,
which is everywhere present.
Your mind cannot
think two things at once.
Have your thought
so packed with good
that it pervades
your grateful being
so much so
that anything bad
gets either pushed out
or cannot enter.

I’ll reiterate:
if you are busy
noticing good
you cannot feel bad.
So what is good
that you can
notice right now?
And now? And now? and now…

by Polly Castor
May 3, 2025