Do you know about the yellow car theory? It’s an example of the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, also known as the frequency illusion, which suggests once you become aware of something, you start noticing it everywhere.
If you’re not familiar, it’s easy to try it out. Simply start looking for yellow cars, and soon, you’ll be seeing them endlessly! Soon you’ll start to wonder, “Have there always been this many yellow cars around me?” Soon you’ll understand how awareness and attention can influence our perception and truly change what we see.
This too is the beauty and power of OOH LA LA! By tuning my attention to the moments of joy and pleasure in my days, I am seeing more joy and pleasure in my days. After each week I wonder, “Will I have anything to write about next week?” And the more I write, the more that comes. The more I notice, the more I see. The more I see, the more I know there is so much pleasure and goodness all around.
This week’s OOH LA LA! list includes: smiling at strangers, juicy watermelon, watching the sky change from day into night.
Last Friday I had two flights canceled due to the great tech outage of 2024. I had been working a photo production event and had a large stack of media equipment I was schlepping around the airport. I waited in long lines with other travelers and wondered about a big group of teenagers in matching t-shirts, whom I later learned were traveling to Rome on some organized group excursion. All the waiting and changing plans made everyone a bit on edge, but in the waiting I enjoyed smiling at strangers and watching their body language shift toward peace, if even for a moment. I love how a smile can do that.
In the summertime, I have a hard time wanting to eat food throughout the day. I know I need calories, but the heat makes me lose my appetite for chewing. My saving grace has been eating juicy watermelon, which somehow feels both like a solid food and a delicious liquid. I recently bought a whole watermelon and sliced it at home, but last week when I was on the road, I fell in love with store-bought slices, which I kept in my hotel refrigerator. Knowing I had watermelon waiting for me when I returned at the end of a long day became such a comfort, like coming home to a familiar friend.
I am never not amazed at watching the sky change from day into night. I’m obsessed with the way the clouds shift shapes, how the bright blue becomes light blue becomes pink becomes orange becomes yellow becomes a sky full of stars. I was in Cincinnati, sitting by the Ohio River, watching bats swoop over the water as the sun slipped behind the day, falling in love with the world all over again. I had come to the river weary, heavy-hearted with questions about everything, and then the clouds, like synchronized swimmers in the sky, floated into formations and spun and twirled in perfect harmony to the sound of two young brothers laughing as they chased each other by the river.
Thanks for reading!
Have an OOH LA LA! something to share?
Reply to this email with 1-3 sentences about your current obsessions, passions, joys, and pleasures, or what you love most about the world right now!
XOXO,
LJ
“If one looks long enough at almost anything, looks with absolute attention at a flower, a stone, the bark of a tree, grass, snow, a cloud, something like revelation takes place.”
-May Sarton