Seeing with Fresh Eyes

“The real voyage of discovery consists not seeing new sights, but with seeing with new eyes.”  – Pico Iyer

Great Heron at Rest
Photography by Linda Wilson

Miracles Happen
Many years ago, one of my beloved daughters was acting somewhat furtive, maintaining little eye contact, repeatedly touching her turned down face. Standing slope-shouldered behind her partner she stared at the floor. Then looked up. Light in her eyes changed deepening to a brilliant dark green like moss in the early morning. Rosiness of a pink sunset sky spread across her face. Suddenly a shift in my awareness and Joseph Pearce’s words hit home “insight is always complete and perfect in its single instant’s appearance.” In that “A-ha” moment I was seeing with fresh eyes. My daughter was carrying a special light, a heartbeat of its own swimming in her inner world.

Composer Vinteuil said, “The only true voyage is discovery…not to visit strange lands but to possess other eyes, to behold the universe through the eyes of another, of a hundred others….”  When we  “possess other eyes”, we allow ourselves to be transported to a wonderful and sometimes, surprising new land.

Opening to New Visions
Traveling to new sites is important for the writer and artist. Brains are changed by new experiences. Rising mindscapes materialize when the world is mined with fresh eyes. Annie Dillard said the experience of writing “is that of any unmerited grace. It is handed to you, but only if you look for it.”

I am looking but writing struggles still come, sometimes relentlessly. Waiting for inspiration sweat beads form on my forehead. But when words pop on the page, even if it’s clunky, I feel fresh and a little bold, at least for a while. Where does an idea come from? Einstein compared the explosion of an idea to a chicken laying an egg: “Kieks—auf einmal, ist es da. Cheep—and suddenly there it is. Clever, Dr. Einstein. It worked, but I’m stuck again—where is Ella when I need her?

Ella Appears
When I was a second grader, I told my friends I had a whispering genie on my shoulder. She was my doppelganger – we didn’t look alike but had the same brains. Ella was a little bossy and told me what to do. It worked for a lot of things. At school, Ella told me when to kick (or not) the seat in front of me, pass on the creamed potatoes and peas at hot lunch, and stay away from HIM on the playground.

Ella was there for me when I had school work to do, especially creative work. She helped me see with fresh eyes. If I got hijacked on a paragraph, say, writing about my favorite animal, an old paint horse, she whispered a few magic words to get me started. Or when Miss Armstrong asked us to use the weekly spelling words in sentences there she was again planting some good (most of the time) ideas into my head.

Today is a difficult writing day, I look out the window and beam Ella to me. She arrives carrying on her little round body the powers of an Houdini. But instead of making things disappear she makes them appear “Kieks—auf einmal, ist es da.”  Cheep! Ella does it again. — Becky Breed

Writing/Creative Exercises:

1. Read This Morning by Esther Morgan.https://www.poetryinternational.com/en/poets-poems/poems/poem/103-24052_THIS-MORNING
2. Raymond Carver says a writer makes everything over to her own “specifications. It’s her world and no other. That’s how we are distinguished from one another.” Ultimately, he said we write when we know. What are your own specifications? For a writing exercise pretend you are looking at the world through the eyes of a ten-year old girl flying a kite or a middle-aged man watching the gyrations of a hula dancer. Select one or your choice. Now write a paragraph with a set of fresh eyes. How does the world look to you?
3. Who is your Ella? Write a description of her/him/it. Who or what helps you see with new eyes?

For more inspiration, check out our website www.thewritingandcreativelife.com. Or follow this link to purchase Writing in Community or our latest book, The Fire Inside.