one hundred six

FRESH EYES

I've lived in the southwest for almost twenty years and the vast open spaces still blow my mind. I travel back to the Ohio valley area where I grew up and see the place through new eyes. By new eyes I mean I see it fresh like I've never seen it before. 

If we live in a place long enough it can become invisible. Even the Grand Canyon would become that big hole in the ground over time. 

I talked to people who live places like this, they talked this way. I have found people bored with beaches. I know this is a normal process but does it have to happen? 

I knew a man named Westley Hanna, born in 1900 and lived his whole life within a five mile area. He looked out of the same window at the same pasture for endless years. He had a garden in the same spot, drove the same roads, watched the same sunrise and sunsets for even more years. He was able each new day to see something new in these places and that always amazed me. 

A trip through his garden was an adventure, I got an education about the life and the behavior of cows every time we looked out of that kitchen window. He looked at things in a wonderful way. 

I have met many who could see what was in front of them, one was my Dad. We waited for trains to pass almost daily in this small industrial town. We could just be angry because we had to wait or accept our fate and watch in wonder. I sometimes think my Dad would rather watch trains then drive. 

Dad drove steam trains during the war and had a romance with them ever since. I thought he was nuts, probably because he was my Dad but I know a lot about trains now. My point is seeing what is in front of us is a mind set. 

The Grand Canyon is a mind blowing sensory overload that everyone can see, but even it can become boring. I believe I have learned a little about how to see the mind blowing things in boring places. In other words a shuttle launch or a bird building a nest, both are a wonder but one is just easier to notice.