Features

The transformative power of ‘stopping to notice’

Walthamstow-based author and actor Miranda Keeling is on a mission to stop, take notice, and record the world around her

Miranda Keeling, Credit: HeardinLondon

Miranda Keeling is a Walthamstow-based author, actor, and podcaster. Through her podcast, Stopping to Notice, and her book, The Year I Stopped to Notice, Miranda extols the values of taking a moment to stop, breathe in, and notice the world as it moves and takes shape around you.

The book and podcast originate from tweeted observations of the magic, humour and strangeness of ordinary life. Through the changing seasons, on city streets and on buses, in parks and cafes, Miranda notices things: moments between friends, the interactions of strangers, children delighting in the world around them, the quiet melancholy of items left behind.

Those documented observations have proved wildly popular, and her Twitter account has attracted 27,000 followers.

Stopping to Notice features short episodes of five minutes in length that capture the small but magical moments of everyday life in binaural sound.

The podcast, which has been nominated for a British Podcast Award, includes episodes recorded in parks and iconic spots across Walthamstow such as St Mary’s churchyard, Lloyd Park, and Vestry House.

Miranda has advice for anyone who is running through life, often without ever stopping to take notice. “Noticing takes me out of my head with its whirr of thoughts and away from the world in my phone and places me in the here and now. I’d recommend it to anyone because life is short and it can help to slow down for 30 seconds, notice a tiny, strange, silly, ordinary or even melancholy moment and really take it in.”

“In a 24 hour news-cycle world, with endless, often negative distractions to grab your attention, a few minutes walking through a park, down a street or around a quiet supermarket or museum can offer an escape, which in turn can make you notice your own world more clearly.”

Below Miranda shares some of the magical moments from her walks around Walthamstow that she’s documented in her podcast:

Credit: Wellbeck Kane

What would it be like to be someone else for a few minutes? To hear the world as if through their ears? I’m working on a project that allows people in Walthamstow and across the world to do just that, with the sounds of our borough and beyond.

I have always been a people watcher. And not just people: pigeons, dogs, cats, buildings, trees, the way the breeze catches the sari fabric of a woman at a bus-stop, a single fingerless glove left on the pavement, a man outside an office blowing on his tea to cool it down, and steaming up his glasses so he can’t see.

For years I have noticed these things and turned them into little descriptions or poems and posted them online. Many of them are recorded in Walthamstow, where I live. Here’s a couple of examples:

I sit looking out over Walthamstow Wetlands. A little girl comes to sit beside me.

Little girl: Hello.

Me: Hello.

Little girl: (gestures to everything before us) Did you do this?

Me: (laughing) No.

She smiles at me, as if we both secretly know I did.

In a café, a woman stands staring down at the brownies as if they will eventually confess to something.

Little boy walking down Orford Road and counting on his fingers: “Dad, is it swearing to count the number two?”

Credit: Wellbeck Kane

Recently I have started noticing in a new way. Using a 3D binaural recording kit, I have been walking around and observing the world, through sound. What are the sounds of Walthamstow?

In Lloyd Park, birds chatter, tennis balls hit racquets, pigeons gather, a man tries to retrieve something from the pond with an enormously large stick.

A man carries a scooter over his shoulder, the same way a waiter in a restaurant would carry a towel. A woman in planet-patterned jogging gear swings her arms wide open and then hugs herself, as if trying to keep something inside.

In Vestry House Museum, a woman looks at the displays, as outside the wind whips through the awnings of the closed café. A couple are holding hands, walking along. They’ve both got white hair. The woman’s got bright blue eyeshadow on, like a mermaid’s tail.

As an actor, I used to work in radio, and I love sound. Focusing through one sense makes us really pay attention and notice the little things. It has real benefits too – it slows my breathing down as I concentrate on what I can hear and how to describe it. The act of noticing in this way calms my mind. I can’t use my phone or get distracted while I do it. And because it is recorded in 3D audio, if you listen back to it through headphones, it has a similar effect – immersing you in that particular moment completely.

The borough I live in is bursting with sound, from the fountains in Fellowship Square, the markets, the playgrounds, the workshops and restaurants and cafes, and the wildlife in the Wetlands. I can’t wait to get out and record some more of it. So come and join me for a five minute walk around Walthamstow, and the world.

Credit: Luci Power

There are new episodes of Stopping to Notice every Tuesday and Thursday. Miranda Keeling can be found on Twitter @MirandaKeeling

Her book, The Year I Stopped To Notice, is available here

If you are interested in buying any of the prints/illustrations in this article you can contact Miranda via her website 


No news is bad news 

Independent news outlets like ours – reporting for the community without rich backers – are under threat of closure, turning British towns into news deserts. 

The audiences they serve know less, understand less, and can do less. 

If our coverage has helped you understand our community a little bit better, please consider supporting us with a monthly, yearly or one-off donation. 

Choose the news. Don’t lose the news.

Monthly direct debit 

Annual direct debit

£5 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else, £10 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else and a print copy posted to them each month.  £50 annual supporters get a digital copy of each month's paper before anyone else.

Donate now with Pay Pal

More information on supporting us monthly or annually 

More Information about donations

Our newspaper and website are made possible by the support of readers and by displaying online advertisements to our visitors. Please consider helping us to continue to bring you news by disabling your ad blocker or supporting us with a small regular payment.