23/08/2026
Sitting chuma (simple, merely, idly) has almost become culturally suspicious.
I don’t need a reason to sit somewhere.
And then I saw all these people do the same thing and said yessss, this is my kinda city.
I understand people-watching to be a form of attention practice.
Burnout culture turns attention into a transaction. We look at our phone to get something. We open Instagram to be entertained. We go for a walk to get our steps in. We exercise to hit a target. We meet someone because it’s useful.
People-watching is almost gloriously useless.
You might notice someone’s coat, a couple arguing, an old man reading a newspaper, a child chasing a pigeon, someone’s mannerisms.
You’re exercising your capacity to observe without immediately judging, fixing, purchasing, comparing or responding.
And perhaps one of the healthier lifestyle shifts is learning that not every empty moment needs to be filled, and not every moment of stillness needs to be justified.
