On Attention and the Flow of Time

There is this section in Sarah Bakewell's bestselling biography of Montaigne How to Live, where she writes about the centrality of attention—that one indispensable ingredient, or rather capacity, for living well that Montaigne so admiringly mastered and embodied. Along those lines, he repeatedly reflected on the connection between attuned awareness and the thickening of time’s flow. In fact, as he got older

his desire to pay astounded attention to life did not decline; it intensified…. Knowing that the life that remained to him could not be of great length, he said, “I try to increase it in weight, I try to arrest the speed of its flight by the speed with which I grasp it…. The shorter my possession of life, the deeper and fuller I must make it.” He discovered a sort of strolling meditation technique: When I walk alone in the beautiful orchard, if my thoughts have been dwelling on extraneous incidents for some part of the time, for some other part I bring them back to the walk, to the orchard, to the sweetness of this solitude, and to me. At moments like these, he seems to have achieved... an ability to just be.

An ability to just be. Synonyms: to dwell; to rest; to be silent; to be present; to be grateful; to be receptive; to be in awe; to be content;… One of the lessons I take to heart from the book of Ecclesiastes and many a Psalm, for sure...