Everyone always says to just "open up your eyes" but if you open them with a jaded view on the world and your own distorted set of glasses then you don't always see what really is there, but what you think is there.
My mother needs a new pair of glasses. She went to the doctor, he prescribed them for her and yet she has not started to use them. In fact, she did not even get the prescription filled. Something about the cost, the time and then the honest statement that she is afraid she won't get used to them and be more prone to falling or getting dizzy. To be honest, that is a valid point at her age as she is well into her eighties, however she also needs the stronger prescription. She is alas, comfortable with her old one and afraid of the new one.
This is a common problem with older people, I remember when my father had his glasses redone to the older prescription as he said he could not get used to the newer one. I believe, years back my mother did the same and balked at a new pair although eventually she picked out some new frames and had a compromise done with the prescription.
She also doesn't like her hearing aid. Seems it is WAY TOO LOUD... and she insisted my brother "turn it down" as it disturbed her.
Funny how we are so afraid of change that even a good change makes us nervous.
Except for those few Nachshon types who run out into the chaos of change with complete emunah even when he was afraid to swim, he trusted where God was taking them and moved forward, a biblical trail blazer of sorts.
So, my question is how often do we do this in our lives? How often do we look at the world through the eyes of who we were ten years ago or even twenty years ago?
My mother-in-law lived in America for over thirty years before she stopped counting in German and began to count in English.
We try so hard to live in a New Age world where Moshiach is as real as the fruit on the orange trees and yet, when the first obstacle comes up we knee jerk look at the world through our old Golus eyes and need to be reminded to put on our new glasses with the better prescription and really look at what we see and not what we think we see.
The picture above reminded me of when I lived in California and how it looked on a rare winter day, after a good rain when snow was on the tops of the mountains and the sky was clean and blue and beautiful. Looking out at the road the other day was like a blast from the past, back to the past and the 1980s when I saw this same view several times on a cool, winter day in L.A.
But, this picture was taken not in LA in a place where there are no mountains and definitely not snow covered mountains and it's merely an illusion and my memory playing tricks on me. Of course it's mountains and the sun, late in the day is turning the snow covered mountains that beautiful shade you see so often a half a continent away.
Those are clouds, beautiful, climbing, cumulous clouds far off in the distance on a day when one last set of cumulous clouds tried to form a line of strong, severe storms capable of winds in excess of 55 mph. Tornadoes formed to the south and east of here and these clouds that looked like mountains didn't turn out to be anything but an illusion of a mountain range on the distant horizon.
How many of our problems are really just illusions that we have dreamed up through the lens of how we are used to looking at our lives. We opened our eyes, we blinked and we saw what we thought was there. Much in the same way that the spies went into Israel and saw one thing but imagined dangers and visions that Caleb did not see, because Caleb was filled with faith not fear.
What looks like a mountain range off in the distance does not even need to be jumped over or gone around, it is not even there, it's just an illusion.
A mirage of mountains that seems more real than a wall of clouds, trying to turn into thunderstorms reflecting the sunlight late in the day.
I saw this beautiful picture online today and I thought... wow, Santa Monica :) I love Santa Monica!
Turns out the picture is not Santa Monica, but Nice, France.
A very nice picture of Nice, but not Santa Monica.
An old picture postcard of Santa Monica is shown below, since this picture was taken they planted palm trees and on a sunny day in the summer it looks a lot like the picture of Nice...
A newer picture of Santa Monica would show big, new buildings and the mountains and palm trees but I love the way this older picture looks and you get the idea..
When you open up your eyes, what do you really see? Do you trust what you see or do you just go on automatic and think you know what you see?
What do you see in the picture above now that I have told you there are no mountains? Do you believe me or do you think I am making this up to prove a point? Sure looks like a distant mountain range, possibly the Smokey Mountains but no... it's only clouds.
Make sure next time you look at life you look through the new prescription and don't hang onto the old glasses that are dark, dirty and disillusioned.
Is your glass half full or half empty? Are you waiting for Geulah or are you living Geulah?
The choice may be as simple as getting a new pair of glasses.
Wherever you are be sure to open up your eyes to the wonders around you and enjoy the beauty of the world that surrounds you.
