tonight's question — what did you notice today

For the table, somewhere past the halfway mark of dinner — what did you see today that you had never noticed before?

"Nothing" is a legitimate first answer; it usually means the question needs a minute to soak. Let it soak. Then, if the table is willing, look around the room together and find one thing right now — the fan's slight wobble, the one switch on the board that operates nothing, the crack in the ceiling shaped like a river.

This is not observation practice for marks. It is the pleasant suspicion that the world repays a second look — a suspicion worth catching young, and worth catching late.

Once one thing is found, stop there. One is the right number.