Let's Appreciate

1:53pm Wednesday 4th July 2007

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At an event I was involved in this week one of the delegates made and impassioned plea to those assembled to pause and appreciate Herefordshire’s indigenous talent. At the time we were talking about establishing a Multiversity for Herefordshire – a locally distinctive form of higher education that has sustainable development principles at its heart.
What became apparent during the discussion was the strength of local expertise in the county in the fields of agriculture, food, land based care, personal development, music, art, citizenship, bio-energy and sustainable development advocacy. An appreciation of this caused all sorts of imaginative ideas to fly. By the end of the event I felt very optimistic about the prospects for a Multiversity.
I got to thinking how important appreciation is in finding solutions to some of the problems we face. Appreciation generates our creativity. When an artist sits in front of a landscape the imagination is kindled not by searching for what is wrong with this landscape but by a special ability to be inspired by those things worth valuing. Appreciation draws our eye towards life, stirs our feelings, sets in motion our curiosity.
Our society tends to focus on what’s wrong or what’s missing. Think of your own conversations. How much time do you spend bemoaning something or other – as opposed to cherishing, valuing and appreciating? It’s so easy only to give attention to the bad things. There’s an old saying that you tend to increase what you pay attention to. Give your children attention only when they’re naughty and watch their behaviour deteriorate.
So, my tip for the week is to try appreciation for a change. You’ll find it is a fast breeder. The more sincerely you appreciate life from the heart, the more you focus on what you genuinely value in other people, the more the magnetic energy of appreciation attracts positive experiences into your life.
Mother Theresa put it very simply when she said “There is more hunger for love and appreciation in the world than there is for bread”.

Shirley Ali Khan