Focus

Focus: one moment in time in one place.

To hold one thought in one’s mind, to hold one image, one sound in mind, for one moment, that is the essence of conscious thought. To think critically is to hold two or more thoughts, images, sounds in mind simultaneously and see them in relationship to one another, and to understand the significance of that relationship.

When overwhelmed, when we have too many thoughts, too many images, stewing in our minds at once, when there are more than we can hold in focus in one moment, when they spin, when they collide aimlessly, when they cast us adrift in the whirlwind they create, then we lack focus. In this lack of focus we cannot connect clearly with any one thought, because there are too many, and it is too much. Such is stress. Such is angst. Such is a blurred moment that take us out of focus.

So we step back. We pause. And catch our breath. We breathe again. Just breathe, one breath and then another, and another, and the storm begins to clear. The whirlwind calms down, until we can see clearly again, until we can focus. Then we see the wisdom in the admonition to take a break.

I slipped into that whirlwind, which caught me in a snapshot of this pandemic, in one thin moment of empathy that multiplied like a fractal. The number of persons who have died this year from this one virus, the image of their families’ lives and their grief, and those who will yet succumb—multiplied over and over—it was all so much, too much to contain.

So as a means to find focus, I looked away for a while and I allowed my soul to rest. We all must do so from time to time to survive, even if on the sidelines. And once focus had returned and vision was re-tuned, a path presented itself, one I had not seen before. We can find our way again.

And here, now, in this moment, I find my way again, I hear the leaves, I see the space between the trees and step out, once again. Such, too, is what it means to be human. To hold one image again, one thought again, and again to see the significance and understand, if only in this one moment on this immense journey we take together.

It is enough.