How to See Life With New Eyes

How to See Life With New Eyes

“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”~Max Planck

 

I cross paths with lots of people on a daily basis. And, I love engaging in conversation with the folks I meet. I relish finding points of connection, common ground, similarities in thinking. The Gallups Strength Finder model calls this tendency WOO. Simply put, I’m energized by talking to strangers and much my mother’s horror, I’ve always been that way. (Sorry Mom, it’s how I’m wired.)

 

Know what? I’m thrilled by what I hear. I hear optimism. I hear people who see a better year ahead. And get this. I’m betting they are the people who will have a better year! What we think about we bring about, right? Earlier in the week, I saw a cartoon that sums it up perfectly. I apologize I don’t have the source but I can’t resist sharing it again here.

 

 

What does it mean to see life with “new eyes?”

 

 

A while back, I was deep in noodling. Pondering what I have to offer, what I hope to share with you in these little posts. I always thought it’s about encouraging you. Reminding you to press on and look for the joy in life, finding the gifts, even through hard times. But right then I had a light bulb flash in my head. The words “new eyes” popped in my thoughts followed immediately by the phrase “new wise.” For me, it was an “a-ha” moment like the legendary apple that fell on Isaac Newton’s noggin.

 

Wait, what? Which comes first? Do we become wise and then we’re able to see life through new eyes or do we look through new eyes and grow wise? What do you think? Maybe it’s a process like nibbling around the edges of a sandwich we’re savoring. Sort of a thought-provoking two-step. See more, grow wiser. Grow wiser, see more.

 

New Eyes, a whole different perspective

 

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”~Marcel Proust

 

 

Anyhow, ever since then, I’ve been looking for ways to explain what it is to see life through new eyes. Sadly, we can become myopic and jaded. Our lens on living may grow dim and dusty with disillusionment. Life can beat us up and shrink our window on the world to a dull gray peephole. And, if we’re honest, we all go through spells like that. We hit bottom. Sometimes its called the dark night of the soul.

 

But here’s the deal. When you’ve hit bottom, there’s only one way to go! You can bust a move, throw open those shutters and see life blazing with brightness and color! When the scales fall from your eyes, everything is new again! Seeing life with new eyes is about gratitude, curiosity and hope. It’s a willingness to trust in God and the ultimate goodness of the Universe. It’s seeing the world with eyes like you had as a child, filled with wonder and joy.

 

“We do not see things as they are. We see things as we are.”~ Rabbi Shemuel ben Nachmani

 

 

 

“The only true voyage, the only bath in the Fountain of Youth, would be not to visit strange lands but to possess other eyes, to see the universe through the eyes of another, of a hundred others, to see the hundred universes that each of them sees…. “ ~Marcel Proust

 

Sounds pretty incredible, doesn’t it? I think we can agree. We all want to see life with new eyes. But how? In the days ahead, we’ll dig deeper, get gritty and explore some ways we can open our own pair of those amazing peepers! See you Thursday for lesson one.