Seeing is Believing

​Tree-ear suddenly had the sense of seeing clearly the things that had always been there. . . .
     The few cooking pots and bowls were stacked on a little shelf formed by the rocks, with chopsticks, a single spoon, and Crane-man’s knife in a neat row. Tree-ear’s sleeping mat was rolled up and set to one side. There were two baskets Crane-man had woven. One held a few wild mushrooms; the other, bits and pieces that might come in handy one day—scraps of cloth, twine, flint stone. Everything was so familiar to Tree-ear. Crane-man having lived under the bridge so many more years, it must be nearly invisible to him by now.
                                                                              from: A Single Shard
                                                                                 by Linda Sue Park
                                                               Houghton/Mifflin/Harcourt, 2001
                                                                             2002 Newbery Award
 
       At times, I feel like I’m walking through a stupor of the familiar. I don’t notice what is around me or even what is right in front of me until I trip. Then I notice. The fuzzy stripes on a bumblebee, the cool surf licking my toes, the cheerful chirp of a robin. Those things, whatever they are, have been there all along. But, suddenly, I notice.
       Those old clichés, take time to smell the roses, or see the flowers, or hear the music, or taste the wine, or reach out and touch someone (literally or figuratively), really mean something when I think about them.
       It is especially important these days. So many distractions are begging for my attention, grabbing, really. Climate change, including sea-level rise, hurricanes, wild fires, earthquakes.
       Russia.
       Dangerously crazy politicians. North Korea.
       Trying to discern what is real and what is true and whether truth is the same as reality.
       What is really important?
       I remind myself of 2017’s word of the year: perspective.
       From my perspective, it is important to make sure the people in my life know I truly care about each of them (you). It is important to notice the kindness and beauty and good fortune that constantly surround me. It is important to recognize each sunrise as the miracle it really is.
       It is important to revise my manuscript that has caught the eye of an editor.
       It is important to me to send out a cosmic “Thank you” to the universe that allows me to love my life enough to want to share who I am and what I have.
​       It is important to notice.
                                                                                       --stay curious!