We can be physically present while our attention is somewhere else. A message arrives during dinner. A notification enters a conversation. An unfinished decision follows us home and continues occupying the mind long after the working day has ended.
I have learned that presence is not created only by being in the same place. It is created by allowing the person, experience or moment in front of us to become more important than everything asking to interrupt it.
Technology competes for attention because attention has value. Life also depends upon it. People often remember less of what we said than whether they felt we were genuinely there.
In an age designed to keep the mind moving, giving undivided attention may become one of the quietest forms of respect.
Where we place our attention is where our life is actually being lived.