XLVI

Imagine if we were to wake up every morning, and see the world with new eyes. Not to lose our memories, or our understanding, or our past feelings but, just for a moment, to see things with a totally fresh perspective. As if we’d never seen them before. To see people, to see places, to see things, objects, to see events and situations, and natural occurrences. How would we treat injustice in our world if every day we woke up and saw it as if it were the first time? Would we be so tolerant? Would we work harder, would we raise more money, would we get our priorities straight? What if we were to see our partner or our family or our friends or our strangers, with new eyes every day? Would our friends stay our friends, would our strangers stay our strangers, would our family be so underappreciated, or over indulged? What if we were to see our world with fresh eyes every morning? As if we’d never seen a blade of grass, a blue chip of sky. Smelt the air in winter time, in summer time, in spring time, in autumn time, after the rain, before the rain, after the thunderstorm, when the suns been burning hot all day – what if we’d never smelt it before? How could we not know God? What if we were to see ourselves with fresh eyes every morning? As if a stranger passing us on the street. Would we love ourselves? Just for an instant, before we remembered to doubt. Before we remembered to critique. Before we remembered that we were too fat, too skinny, hair too brown, too long, too short, too blonde. Eyes too far apart, too small, too wide. Skin too mottled or wrinkly or elbows pointing in the wrong direction. Ears too big. What if we were just to see ourselves? Perhaps this is a skill that can be taught. Perhaps Mother Theresa would say that every morning she awoke, and saw the injustice and the indignity and the poverty around her with new eyes, and that’s what kept her going. Because there’s always more work to be done. And you can never grow faint of heart, or weary doing good when all you see is newness and new possibility and new adventure. What an adventure to forget. What an adventure to forget and then to be reminded. What an adventure to forget.

[Image: Unknown]