Wisdom story: You can only find what you focus on

One bright afternoon in Washington D.C., two friends, Gerry and Peter, walked down the crowded sidewalk during lunchtime. The city was alive with movement, businesspeople hurried past, deep in conversation or checking their phones, car horns blared in the distance, and the constant hum of engines filled the air. The rhythm of the city was fast and unrelenting. Amidst all this commotion, Peter suddenly stopped in his tracks. He turned his head slightly, listening intently. Then, with a quiet certainty, he said aloud that he had just heard a cricket. Gerry, caught off guard, turned to him with a confused expression. A cricket? Here? In the middle of all this noise? It seemed impossible. Peter smiled and walked toward a nearby bush, one of the small patches of greenery that lined the sidewalk, separating the pedestrians from the towering government buildings. He gently pulled aside some leaves, and there, in the shade, was a small cricket chirping away. Gerry stared in amazement. He could barely hear his own thoughts over the city’s chaos, and yet Peter had managed to pick up the delicate chirping of an insect. He had to ask, how was that even possible? Peter explained calmly that it had everything to do with what one was trained to listen for. He had grown up in a quiet countryside where the sounds of nature were a part of daily life. His ears were attuned to those small, subtle noises, no matter the surroundings. He then told Gerry that he could prove a point about what people notice and that is what their minds are naturally tuned into.

Reaching into his pocket, Peter pulled out a handful of coins, nickels, quarters, and dimes. With a flick of his hand, he let them drop onto the sidewalk. The small metallic sound of coins hitting concrete was almost lost among the city’s hustle and bustle. Yet, something remarkable happened. Several people who had been walking past suddenly stopped. Some turned their heads, others glanced down toward the source of the sound. A few even stepped closer, scanning the ground for what had fallen. Peter turned back to Gerry with a knowing look. He explained that people tend to notice what they have trained themselves to pay attention to. For city dwellers, the sound of money was something their brains had learned to recognize instantly, it was associated with value, with opportunity, with something worth stopping for. But a cricket’s chirp? That sound, though just as present, wasn’t something they had been conditioned to hear in the same way. Gerry thought about this for a moment. He realized that people’s perceptions are shaped by their experiences, their priorities, and even their environments. He considered how often he had ignored the subtle things around him simply because he wasn’t paying attention. He wondered how much of life he was missing by only hearing what he was accustomed to hearing. Peter then went on to say that this idea applied to more than just sounds. It was true of ideas, perspectives, and even people. If someone was taught to look for kindness, they would find it. If they were told to expect danger, they would always be on guard. If they only valued things that were loud, big, or obvious, they might miss the small, quiet, beautiful moments of life.