THE EYES OF THE HEART

I would like to write about this today. I look around me and at the world at large and see how much the world has got us all entrenched in things material and external. Come to think of it, people judge me for what I wear or with the choices I make, good or bad. People measure me for how much I got in the bank or how high up the corporate ladder I’ve gone. People label me for the company I keep or my choice of friends. People size me up for the glitter and glitch I have hang up on my body or to what schools I send my children to or whether my car is of the latest model.

If that be the measure I would certainly stand no chance and those who have everything that pleases the eye would make the grade. But don’t get me wrong, wealth or position serve its own uses and purposes too. And if people work hard for it, it becomes a prize or just reward for achievement.

Yet there must be much more to that.

You see, I’d like to be appreciated for who I am and not for what I have acquired for myself no matter how exquisite it may be, in physical or material terms -- Because I am definitely more than what I possess or do not possess.

This is the same gauge I use in people and life and the bigger world outside. There is more to what I see -- Positively more.

Those things which truly matter are hidden to the eye. Sometimes these things do not translate itself outwardly for some reason or another. It gets bundled up inside the person who has to tend with overwhelming odds or resistance or rejection or neglect. But it’s there quietly beating in the heart, waiting for its own true moment. And yet again because anything true and genuine cannot be muffled or stifled a hundred percent of the time all of the time, it somehow slips out in small gestures or snippets of expression too minute and often go unnoticed.

You can’t see these with the eye. Certainly cannot know how much hurt or pain or suffering is bottled up inside. Or how much good intent there is and why that person would concede to suffering. What if a person acts the way he does which may appear quite odd to others but because he seeks to protect a loved one or ease the burden of another and so does it anyway? When someone rubs you the wrong way and goes against your grain and pisses you off big time, but do you know what’s pushing him to be that way? Most people put up a lot of facades or masks or fences to hide things which they feel would not be accepted or understood by others. They build high walls to keep out other human beings who they think are out to fry them and break them down to pieces. And some pretend that they don’t need people at all – that self is sufficient and all that’s needed to live life with. More often than not, what you see in people isn’t what you get.

I see people – human beings who breathe the air I breathe, walk the roads I walk, dream the dreams I dream, play the same games I play, work the same jobs I work at, and know that we are all the same in our similarities and differences.

But the eyes of my heart can see well and better. It sees what goes on behind the facades and masks --- and understands. It can sift through the grain and pick out gems of feelings, thoughts, values, ideals, and intent. It understands that these are the things which truly matter. It knows that it is the person inside which is real and true and worthy.

It is only with the heart that one can see clearly,
for themost essential things are invisible to the eye."

-- Antonie de Sainte Exupery

(The picture here is courtesy of Malen, my youngest daughter, who took it with her phone cam. The subject is Maxie, our pet dog.)