Do you like who you are, when you are with them?

Noticing the birds, Noticing the rhythm of people, Noticing the temperature in the air.

Real art, lives inside the attention. The world reveals itself to those who seek.

This Qur’an verse puts it in a beautifully simple way: “Wherever you turn, there is the Face of God.” (2:115)

I’ve noticed lately that when my attention sharpens, the world around me becomes more dense with signs. My grandpa told me once “The bird you notice today may shape the metaphor in a poem ten years from now.”

I also noticed recently that my environment changes my perception. The people I kept around me, altered how I viewed and approached the world. But noticing the outside world is only half of the problem. The other half is the internal. The crazy thing is what happens when you notice too much.

So lately, I began to observe my inner world and my outer world with the same level of attention and I gotta say I hated and resented both sides of the same coin. However it made me want to change.

I am slowly changing the internal and my external is slowly following suit. I changed what I let into my life. I changed where I go and who I spend my time with. Everyday my life is getting better and the people I left behind are calling me crazy while the new people entering my life are celebrating my “new beginning.”

Everything has always been there, I’m just happy I finally noticed it. I leave you with one final question that triggered it all for me: “Do you like who you are when you’re with them?”

— Younis W Dhaher