The Power of Seeing Things Newly

Fifteen years ago I took my first trip to Costa Rica. Everything was new and different there. The rainforest. The animals. The bugs. The people. The language. It was an adventure defined by the exploration of new worlds.

 
While there, I was lucky enough to spend 3 days deep within the rainforest in a location accessed only by a very long and bumpy tractor ride on a deeply-rutted, mud trail. The forest at this location was so thick with growth that you could not see 3 feet beyond where you were standing!

 

One morning, I was watching the birds in the tree canopy when I spotted the red breast of bird. The red looked brilliant against the various green colors of the lush jungle leaves. Its black wings further highlighted its red color and its yellow beak made it look supremely exotic among the rainforest backdrop. I marveled at its infinite beauty and intense colors this new world held.

 

But sometimes, the magnificence of life really has nothing to do with what we see, and everything to do with how we think. Life is not a function of whether what we experience is new, but rather can we relate to it as new.

 

Every year in the northeast, the robins return in early spring. For a brief moment, I celebrate their arrival, but before long, they return to their typical old boring status of “Oh, that’s just a robin.”

 

But perhaps in doing so, I short-change the wonder and beauty of my life.

 

I don’t need to look any further than my trip to Costa Rica for proof of this. I later found out that the magnificent bird I spotted in the jungle and marveled at for 20 minutes was called a mountain thrush, more commonly known to us as . . . a robin.

 

Just as the hand held before the eye can hide the tallest mountain, so the routine of everyday life can keep us from seeing the vast radiance and the secret wonders that fill the world.                – Chasidic, 18th Century

 

Sometimes we need to look at our life and loved ones in a whole new way to realize the beauty and uniqueness they hold.  If we were to experience the world we see every day, day-in and day-out, with the same wonder and awe of a child, we would live in a magical kingdom every moment of our lives, truly experiencing all the joy life has to offer.

 

Can you look at your job that way and be intensely interested in the challenges it offers each day?  Can you look at your beloved that way, and fall in love with them over and over again, every morning?  That is the trick to loving life!

 

And for those who might consider this new perspective just too much of a challenge, consider the miracle of sight this young man has created.  Nothing is impossible!

 

Photo Credit: Copyright, Tim Zurowski

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Are You Still Waiting for Your Miracle?

I remember the day I realized that miracles were not the Moses-parting-the-Red-Sea, Jesus-walking-on-water biblical type, but rather much smaller events. More like my friend Cathy walking into my office right as I thought of her and wanted to speak with her. At first I thought it odd or coincidental, but then I decided to consider that perhaps it was a miracle. Realists and optimists will argue over what it was until they are blue in the face, but technically, it doesn’t matter what you call it.

What matters is your awareness of the event and the acknowledgement of its occurrence, for once you are aware of these little miracles, you will start to see them everywhere and every day. Hundreds of them, if you are really aware.

And that is what is important; to be aware and awake so that you see them every day.

I find that many people wait for that biblical-sized miracle before they admit to these mysterious occurances and begin living their life as if they could manifest anything they desire. They wait, and they wait, and they wait. It is easy to see that they are waiting for that unmistakable sign to hit them over the head. Fireworks. Bells. A sunbeam parting the sky and shining upon them. A letter in their mailbox from God. Mostly, these people just spend their whole lives waiting. Waiting for that moment to have their life be directed.

In the meantime, however, while they are so busy waiting and looking for that one big sign, they miss all the little ones shouting at them each and every day. And the amazing thing about these little ones is that they serve as a compass guiding us in our everyday life, pointing us in a direction we wish to go. And when put together and followed, all these little miracles form a path known as “being in flow.” Suddenly life becomes not only effortless, but also perfectly aligned with the desires and joys we hold in our heart.

As Albert Einstein once said, “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

I’ve noticed that those who see nothing as a miracle often struggle against life, worrying and trying to control all the outcomes. Those who see everything as a miracle, tend to experience more joy and freedom and constantly bathe in that magical state known as “being in flow.” From all I have witnessed in life, the latter is a much more fun and fulfilling way to live life than the former.

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