new eyes

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”

                                                                        Marcel Proust

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There are those moments

In the midst of an ordinary day

While in the ordinary places

Surrounded by the ordinary people

That our lives are changed

Something changes

Deep down at the center of who we are

In that Holy place

Where the Sacred dwells

Nothing has changed

Yet everything has changed

For good or for ill

And in an instant

Or perhaps two

The world is different

The sky is bluer, or grayer

Our heart expands or shrinks

And we see

With eyes physical

With eyes spiritual

The world differently

Others differently

Ourselves differently

There are times when I pray for new eyes

That I might see that person in the mirror with eyes of love

That person whom I hate (yes I admit it)

Yes that one who acts in ways I despise

That one who hurts and wounds, with eyes of compassion

So that I might see not the flaws but the beauty

Not the deficits, but the potential

And gaze into the future with expectation not fear

May I wake some morning

Perhaps not this morning

But some morning

and find the world a place

Not filled with evil

But filled with the Presence of the Sacred

And see the sun

As angel fire