Well, here we are starting another year. This morning, I was reading an article on Substack about attention being our number one currency. This made me start thinking about my attention and how I am spending it. If where we spend our money shows what we value, then how much more so does how we spend our attention. 

Having a day to spend all to myself, I decided to take a long walk. I walked with no distractions; I did not put on my headphones to listen to a podcast or music. The time was used to think about the word attention and what it meant and how I was using mine. Mostly, my mind just wandered around. After more than an hour of walking I thought about the word attention. I repeated it a few times. The word intention followed it into my thoughts. What are my intentions in life? Should my attentions lead to my intentions? Quality was the next word that came in through the open door. Quality? What does quality mean in the context of my life. Quality of life, that is a phrase we use often when discussing death, but what about when thinking about how to live one's life?  What would a quality life look like to me? What brings me joy? Who do I want to be when I am alone? How do I want to spend my attention? 

These are the questions I am going to start answering for myself. I feel like I have the beauty of a blank slate to write on. I have moved from one corner of Kansas to the opposite corner. Kansas is a big state, so just in distance it is a big move. Bigger than that is the move from an extremely rural area to being 30 minutes from Kansas City.  I moved from a house, town, a county where I had lived for more that 20 years. A place I had raised my family and knew everybody to a place where I can feel alone. What do I want to write on this blank slate? What brings value and quality?