Stating the obvious

March 20, 2018 by

 

Imagine everything you’re not seeing.
The patterns of frost on the window, the three oak trees and two robins by the river, the slices of an apple, the chair seat worn from years rocking children to sleep, the buds straining to emerge on the willow, the glow in a child’s eyes, the expired strawberry yogurt in your fridge?
 
Often we see only what is in our own little bubble, the twelve inches around us. We think we are the centre of the galaxy because that is the centre of what we can see, exaggerating our own importance and clinging to false notions of permanence.Could it be because we really don’t want to see? Because once you know something, you have to do something about it. Even if you choose to do nothing, it is now out in your world.

Most people do not see things as they are because they see things as they are.                                                                                                – Fr. Richard Rohr
Over the years, I have learned two very important lessons. I don’t remember the first one, but the second one is to write everything down.
Actually three. The secret to happiness is low expectations.
 

Nobody sees a flower really, it is so small. We haven’t time, and to see takes time.                                                                                       – Georgia O’Keefe
 
Take our incessant addiction to snapping a million trillion pictures on our smartphone. We can and should take pictures of experiences – but only after we experience them.

Otherwise all we have are pictures showing ourselves having experiences that we never actually felt.

Because most of us take pictures before we are actually seeing.  

How many times have you seen people automatically pull out their smartphone upon entering a room, finding a statue, seeing a sunrise – and instantly press the button? Can they even remember being there? 

We are obsessed with documenting events we never truly experienced or earned -–  moments in which we never arrived.

We have to arrive first.

How many misunderstandings would be avoided if we made the time and concerted effort to look at each other eye to eye?

How many bad sofa decisions could we have avoided by sitting in them for a very long time to see how it felt, exploring it’s shape, imagining long conversations?
 
The most important time is now. The present is the only time over which we have power.  The most important person is whoever you are with.

The most important thing is to do good to the person you are with.
How long should we wait until everything is perfectly aligned?  Hospitality does not need to wait for the new sofa or the remodelled bathroom or even the tidied up kitchen. Unless you need a new sofa and the bathroom need to be remodelled.

Life is paradoxical. Paradoxal thinking means embracing brokenness as an integral part of life, opening the heart to something new. It means looking at life as both–and.

Yes, the sofa is both worn and I should get a new one.
So if you need some help buying your new sofa, it seems I will be busy for next 72 hours because I just got an email from Mr/Ivan Ronald who has just met with president Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria who claimed that he has been trying his best to make sure I am not frustrated that Mr. Robert Graves does not divert my fund into his personal account. But it should be fine because secretary general Mr. António Guterres has decided to waive away all my clearance fees to effect the payment of my compensation of an amount of $10.7 Million  – which I should be receiving any day now. 
Filed Under: Blog