On Undivided Attention

On the gratification of deep focus. Plus, three addictive horror reads and a delightful short.

One day this week I looked up from my lunch past the book I was reading to notice movement in my neighbor’s backyard. An older woman with grey hair, she sat down in a chair facing the bush that separates our plots holding a big bowl. For the next 20 minutes, she ate her lunch, no company, no phone, no distractions. Her contentment distracted me from my book, and so I found myself eating my lunch while observing her eating hers.

It struck me that the sight of someone eating a meal alone in nature with no phone or book or object of entertainment looked so peculiar. Her behavior also reminded me of my own failed new year’s resolution—to eat without distractions. A quarter of the way into the year and I’ve already fallen into my usual routine of reading while I eat. After the first few bites, the food feels boring and in its place as the object of my attention, my own neurosis or running to-do list fills the void. Reading while I eat satisfies the dual hunger I have to be both entertained…