New Eyes

Aug 17, 2015

A friend had just returned home from vacation with such appreciation of the places she’d been visiting the past weeks. Someone asked her if it was her first time at one of our national parks. Her reply, “Fourth time. New eyes.”

What does it mean to see through new eyes?  Immediately I think of our 7 month young grandson, Finn. Babies are the embodiment of seeing with new eyes. That insatiable curiosity for what they can touch, what they can put into their mouths, what faces they can recognize.  All the neuropathways in their active brains are firing and forming as if each has new eyes. 

The new eyes of a fledgling young adult come to mind. Home away from home. Meeting a room mate for the first time. Setting forth on their own. New environment. New scents. New emotions. New eyes to take it all in, learning from all of it.

What does it mean for an elder to see with new eyes?  That was the inquiry I walked with this morning.  I noticed things I had never seen before. A healed limb on gorgeous oak which I pass daily. A different perspective about something I’d previously considered a problem.  There are riches in new eyes.