Monday’s Meditation- On Seeing With New Eyes

June 18, 2012

Happy Monday tootsies! Hopefully you’ve had a bliss-packed weekend of sun, sleep, and some decadent and delightful munchies and punchies. And now, as per the LS custom, a dose of deep thoughts to ring in the week:

I’m sure you’ve heard the above quote uttered perhaps too many a time, to the point where you’ve begun to doubt its sincerity. But do not let the ubiquitousness of said quote fool you: it’s everywhere because it’s true.

Here’s what happens: we people things have eyes (most of us do anyway) and we use them to see. When we see something for the first time we are alert, aware, evaluating and analyzing with each centimeter of our pupils and retinas and corneas and what have you and listen I never once said I was an eye doctor. With this perspective, we are able to make snap decisions, to categorize and label, to decide whether or not what we see appeals to us.

And then something sort of strange happens. As we become accustomed to various sights, be they people we see all the time, or rooms we sit in day after day, we let our eyes go lax. Our brains have so many other things to sort out (“What should I have for dinner?” and “Did I call Douglas about that meeting on Tuesday?” and “I really must stop biting my fingernails, it is a nasty habit, after all.”) that we stop analyzing what we already know to be true and to be there. Simply put, we get used to the sights we see all the time, and in so doing, we turn off that active sharp seeing perspective, and begin lazing around on the cushy, easy, auto-pilot mode of sight known as “looking.”

I shall explain to you how I know all this.

You see, I see this notion proven true on a daily basis as an organizer.

“Hurry, come quick!” my clients cry when they first call me. “I have a case of the looks!”

“Oh heavens!” I shout and, “I’ll be right over!”

When I first arrive, my little clients are so clearly stuck in look mode. Their eyes are glazed over as we move from room to room– “This is the den,” they say, yawning, “and this is where I keep the tupperware,” “and right over here are some drawers, I don’t really know what’s in them.” They begin pulling random things out to show as an example, “corkscrew,” they lift it up and put it back, “can opener,” same thing, “oh, some envelopes, I didn’t even know I had these!” And the process of crossing back over has already begun.

Because when you organize, you are forced to really see things again. Your mind returns to an active mode capable of classifying and noticing. Those piles of paper overflowing in the corner, which your eyes so thoroughly adjusted to the visual of that they no longer register, register. You see them. “Why are those papers there?” You ask yourself. “I don’t want those papers there.”

This is really my goal and my most important duty–other than organize and sort and label and toss and move and rearrange and puzzle and meddle and finagle and organize– to wake up your peepers. To get you to see your home, and each and every thing contained within once again.

It’s a process that is no less than totally incredible to witness. Who was once a pitiful sadsack so tired of her own things that she no longer knew what to do with them is now a person who is fully seeing her spaces again. Her eyes are alive, they are marveling at her own home– the same home, mind you– they are taking in each corner, each object, appreciating, noticing, loving all over again.

This week, make your it goal to take a much deeper look at your surroundings. When you walk into a room in your home that you’ve walked into what feels like 23,000 times before, stay alert. Pretend you are a visitor. That it’s your very first time there. What sticks out at you? What would a person in that position notice about that space?

Drink it all in, even if it’s ugly or messy or not as magazine-perfect as you wish it was. Do this outside of your home as well– on your commute to work, in your office, at the grocery store. Call into action your visual receptors. Fight against the lush urge of the auto-pilot mode.

There is magic (and some horror) to be found in what is always around you. You need not travel to strange lands. You need only use strange eyes to see what has always been right there in front of you all along.

Image credit: Jamie Beck

7 Comments

  1. Anna @ IHOD on June 18, 2012 at 7:53 am

    I look forward to your monday posts. This is wonderful.
    I am going to remember not to just look this week, but see- so many blessings around me I can take for granted:)
    cheers,
    Anna

    • Annie on June 21, 2012 at 12:19 pm

      Can’t tell you how happy it makes me to hear that you do look forward to them. I do too 😉

  2. chiclittleblackdress on June 18, 2012 at 9:21 am

    This is great!! You should never get too comfortable in you on place!! That’s why yesterday I rearranged everything in my apt!

  3. Dawn {The Alternative Wife} on June 18, 2012 at 2:28 pm

    This is so true, Annie! I’ve felt stuck in a rut with my old surroundings. Definitely look at them with tired eyes. But I took a design class in April and was inspired to look at things with a fresh new approach and it’s really starting to help. I’ve felt more inspired and I’m really starting to visualize a transformation.

    Have a great day! xoxo

  4. Annemarie (@brunchatsaks) on June 18, 2012 at 7:36 pm

    Thank you for this, Annie. I needed it to today!

  5. Rachel {little bits of lovely} on June 19, 2012 at 7:07 pm

    What a great way to start the week + it couldn’t be truer for me today. Thank you Annie xx

    • Annie on June 21, 2012 at 12:16 pm

      Thanks for the comment, Rachel. I’m so happy to hear that it resonated with you.

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7 Comments

  1. Anna @ IHOD on June 18, 2012 at 7:53 am

    I look forward to your monday posts. This is wonderful.
    I am going to remember not to just look this week, but see- so many blessings around me I can take for granted:)
    cheers,
    Anna

    • Annie on June 21, 2012 at 12:19 pm

      Can’t tell you how happy it makes me to hear that you do look forward to them. I do too 😉

  2. chiclittleblackdress on June 18, 2012 at 9:21 am

    This is great!! You should never get too comfortable in you on place!! That’s why yesterday I rearranged everything in my apt!

  3. Dawn {The Alternative Wife} on June 18, 2012 at 2:28 pm

    This is so true, Annie! I’ve felt stuck in a rut with my old surroundings. Definitely look at them with tired eyes. But I took a design class in April and was inspired to look at things with a fresh new approach and it’s really starting to help. I’ve felt more inspired and I’m really starting to visualize a transformation.

    Have a great day! xoxo

  4. Annemarie (@brunchatsaks) on June 18, 2012 at 7:36 pm

    Thank you for this, Annie. I needed it to today!

  5. Rachel {little bits of lovely} on June 19, 2012 at 7:07 pm

    What a great way to start the week + it couldn’t be truer for me today. Thank you Annie xx

    • Annie on June 21, 2012 at 12:16 pm

      Thanks for the comment, Rachel. I’m so happy to hear that it resonated with you.

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