The Importance of Noticing
The Importance of Noticing
Noticing gets a Medicare Jet-Setters Groovy Review
By MJ Reporter Willow LaMunyon
Photo by MJ Photographer Christy Moyer
The importance of noticing. Many years ago, after my youngest son, Charley, and his family moved to Okmulgee, my husband and I started making visits. Okmulgee was a dusty little town with more closed businesses than not, but the land was so unbelievably beautiful. The trees and hills made this a picture-perfect vacation spot.
As time passed, Okmulgee started to slowly wake up from its long rest. The beautiful old business buildings were restored, cleaned, and occupied. The town still has a long way to go, but it has already transformed from ghostly to thriving.
Times are modern in this little town now, but not a bit of the old charm is lost. The library is 101 years old, and it beats a spa day for relaxing. There are people in comfortable chairs reading, puzzles to work, and sometimes people creating craft projects. All these activities are done in the subtle light that only happens in old libraries.
About now, you may be asking yourself, what has this got to do with noticing? Everything, my dear friends. Everything. The buildings would have continued to crumble, and people would have continued to move away if somebody hadn’t noticed. Somebody noticed the charm of a fading town. Somebody noticed the pleasing way the many flowering trees fragranced the town. Somebody noticed the rich Native American culture. Somebody noticed the closeness to a lake with a fine camping ground, and after they noticed, they couldn’t forget. They told others to look around, until the idea of creating a better future for this town grew into plans and then action.
Did you ever notice someone’s pretty dress or nice smile and mention it? If you did, you gave that person a little extra confidence. That noticing of a small thing made a difference in another life and cost you nothing.
When I still lived in Enid, Oklahoma, on the farm next to my son Don, the phone rang one evening. It was Don telling me to go outside and enjoy the beautiful full moon. Because he noticed, so did I.
When I moved to Okmulgee and was looking for a place to live, my family went house hunting with me. The realtor opened the door to a house that had all the walls covered with dizzy-making wallpaper. My granddaughters Tiffany and Chauntel said almost in unison. “Oh no, Grandma.”
I couldn’t blame them. However, I noticed something more. There was an excellent arrangement of rooms, the house wasn’t crowded next to the neighboring homes, the backyard looked out onto a tree-filled park with a fishing pond, and the land rested on the side of a hill. I bought that house. I hired a man to peel off the wallpaper and paint the walls. Now I live in my dream home.
A big thank you to Mark Marshall for inspiring this article when he noticed the gutters on my house. My gutters are constantly getting leaf-filled because there are trees in abundance, and I didn’t know what to do about it. Mark noticed my problem and told me about leaf screens. I had never heard of them before, and I plan to have those pesky gutters cleaned and screened. Mark, I appreciate your noticing.
As a final note, before I close this article, I noticed that I used the word noticing or notice way too many times.
Medicare Jet-Setters noticed that noticing gets a groovy review.
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