Are we paying attention or are we distracted?

We live in a world fighting for our attention. A world constantly evolving and creating new platforms and vehicles to secure just that.

Our attention.

And as the world wins, as our attention branches in a thousand different directions, as we pay attention to more and more, we are devoted to less.

Because what the world is really achieving is distraction, not attention.

I looked up the word devotion after reading Mary Oliver's words: 'the beginning of devotion'. And the first word that popped up in the definition: love.

Are we less capable of love because we pay attention to more? And by more, I mean quantity more.

To truly pay attention requires us to stop. Focus. Give something our endless and proper work. If our attention doesn't feel like a stop. If it doesn't feel like work. It is not paying attention. It is quite possibly a distraction from something worthy of our attention.

To stop and pay attention to something is the spark that lights the fire of devotion.

And devotion, that is the spark that lights the fire of love.

A love we will surely miss if we continue to let the world convince us we are paying attention, when in reality, we are fully distracted.