Fresh Eyes

The other day I heard someone say, “look with fresh eyes.” I must admit that I can’t recall ever hearing that expression and it intrigued me. Fresh eyes. I thought about that. For me it seems to hold two meanings. One is that I can look at the old familiar things that surrounds my life with “fresh eyes” and by doing so, the old and familiar can become new and exciting again. Another way means to a little deeper. It involves a bit more effort and may requires changes along the way.  

Later this week I will celebrate my 55th birthday. I am living what I consider to be a blessed life! I am married to the most incredible lady who redefines grace and love for me every day. I have two wonderful children who are making their ways successfully through life and who I am very proud of. I have grandchildren who seem to “get it” and celebrate the fact that Papa never really wanted to grow up. Other family and great friendships simply add to the blessing.

I have had the opportunity to live aboard and travel and I have experienced the world in ways that most people will not. I have stood on mountain tops and walked through valleys. Gerrie and I live in a modest house. It is filled with love and hope and dreams and the many things that make it a home for us. 

But through the years I have become “a creature of habit.” I tend to go to the same places. When I go to a restaurant, I’ll order the same things. I tend to plan things; over plan in some cases. I try not to leave many things to chance. I have become comfortable with the familiar. And while this is not a bad thing, it does stymie adventure. After all, it is hard to “look with fresh eyes” when the current eyes are doing just fine.

Trouble is, they’re not. 

I am still the child who never really wanted to grow up. I still want adventure. I want to go to new places and see new things. I want to have new experiences and create new memories. To do this, I must leave home and temporarily abandon the familiar so that I can strike out in a different direction. There are still dreams in my soul and for the chance to achieve these dreams I must “look with fresh eyes” and look at fresh things. My dream is to explore new things that I might write about. I wish to discover new images to photograph and new things to draw. I want to take the time to think new thoughts. I want to make life fresh again.

“Life is either a great adventure or nothing.”  

                                        ~ Helen Keller

Later this week, Gerrie and I will strike out in a different direction. We go west. This different direction will hold many firsts for us. We’ll visit cities I’ve never visited. We’ll travel cross-country by train from Los Angeles to Chicago and see a parts of the country that we’ve known only through books, photographs and film. We have a general idea of what we’ll do, but absent are the minuet details of the trip. Our choice to do something or to do nothing at all will be left to what we choose in that moment. And for me, that is an adventure!

Previously I’ve mentioned William Least Heat-Moon. I have such admiration for the what he made out of life. Having experienced a life-changing event, he set out to re-define his life. He made his life into a new adventure, and while to me it is a romanticized idea, it is something I wish I had the courage to undertake. He wrote, “Be careful going in search of adventure - it’s ridiculously easy to find.” Gerrie and I are not able to leave it all, jump in a van and set off through America. Flying to new places or taking long train trips may be all that we can manage. But, that is something. It is a beginning.

Seeing new things and seeing them through fresh eyes; it excites me! It also encourages me to wake up each morning and know that God has given me the gift of life for a while longer. That new day deserves to be greeted with fresh eyes, fresh dreams and fresh hopes. It is a new day to love, to create and to inspire. Inside that new day is an adventure just waiting to be discovered. That day is a work of art!

“Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul.”  

                                                                                   ~ W. Somerset Maugham.

See the world with fresh eyes.

Greg