what big eyes you have

"The better to see you with, my dear"
                                                  ~The Big Bad Wolf in Little Red Riding Hood

Sight, one of the five basic senses. But there is nothing basic about absorbing the world around us. Most of how we perceive the world comes through our sense of sight. We are generally a visual people.

I can sit by the lake for hours and be quite content. The sun plays with the ripples in the water. A sailboat glides across the lake; it's sail plump as a pillow. Canada geese waddle comically toward the water.  A young family with a little girl eagerly riding her bike with training wheels. Excitement and pride evident in the expression on her face. Clouds drift by, some plump and some mere wisps. I see dragons and puppies in their ever changing shapes.

After I watched a Netflix video called "St. John of the Cross", I wrote this piece. The story was about a 16th century priest who was imprisoned for his attempts to change the Carmelite order. He wrote poetry while he was imprisoned. 

Lock Me Away

Should it be that I find myself along
Locked away from all known to me.
Would I still find life's beauty?
Or would it become some forgotten memory
Fled alongside my freedom?
Could there be some exquisite wisdom
Found within the solitude?
So that a heart can still witness
What is hidden from the eye
So that the soul could still dance
When the music is silent.
Is that, what is locked away in me,
Bread enough to sustain?
To hold dear the color of a sunset.
To conjure the magic of love.
To forever keep the feel of wind in my hair.
To summon the thundering roar of a waterfall.
To play back lilting notes that once moved me so.
I am prepared, lock me away.
For what lives within me is greater than circumstance.
Faith and hope defies mere happenstance.
Love, ah divine love, never surrenders.
I am ready.

The point being, sight is an amazing blessing. Open your eyes to all that is around you. It's a beautiful world. What then when we see the suffering? Take that into your heart so that you can be the blessing to help others. Think of that! What if you are the most beautiful thing that someone or something in need sees?

Be the blessing.

If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things in nature have a message you understand, Rejoice, for your soul is alive.
                                                                                                  ~Eleanora Duse