Saturday, October 8, 2011

What Are You Seeing?

You just never know where you might stumble across words of wisdom.  It could be on a billboard, a refrigerator magnet, a popsicle stick or in a fortune cookie.  Or in my case, I found some food for thought on my calendar when I went to scribble in an upcoming engagement so I wouldn't forget it.

It's already October, and I just now noticed that each month has a pithy saying printed in the corner of each month's page.  These are the words that got me thinking today:

"What we see depends mainly on what we look for."

The veracity of that statement runs deep.  How often is the truth skewed because we are looking at it through a filter of our own making?  And how often do we miss beauty and joy because we are blinded by a lens of negativity or distrust?  To see the truth, we need to be objective and aware of how we are looking at things. And that's not always easy.

Sometimes it's easier to see the bad than it is to see the good.  But maybe that's because we have fallen into the habit of only looking for the bad.  What would happen if we changed our focus and starting looking for the good in people or in situations? I can't help but think that our vision would improve immensely as well as our attitudes.

So, my goal is to be more aware of how I look at people and circumstances and to try and focus on the good before the bad.  Oh, I'm also going to go back and read the sayings on the past nine months of my calendar!

2 comments:

cindy holman said...

Good stuff, Laura - I am going to do the same!

Diana Savage said...

In the last few years, I've learned the truth of "What we see depends mainly on what we look for." When I came to understand that one's attitude is everything, I made the decision to look for God's hand in every delay instead of getting upset. It's amazing what a difference that makes! Thanks for reminding us of that in your excellent blog.