Seeing Is Believing

Well, I had to get a new pair of glasses because the dog…well never mind; she’s Baby, the pampered pup & I still love her regardless of what she did to my last pair glasses:)  Anywho, I’ve worn glasses since I started middle school & I have had many pairs over the years, but I absolutely hated my 1st pair of glasses!  They were theeee worst because they looked like Sally Jesse Raphael glasses (no offense to her); the frame was even RED, just like hers.  Clearly I didn’t pick out those glasses (thanks mama), so it’s no surprise that a couple of weeks after I got them, they disappeared…oops!  I don’t know how or where I lost them, but subconsciously I’m sure I lost them on purpose…shhhh!

Fast forward 30 yrs, and the first thing I thought about when I chose my new glasses was those Sally Jesse Raphael frames because that’s exactly what they reminded me of, except they were not her shade of red.   The thing is, I absolutely loved them the minute I tried them on! Yesterday, I was excited when the receptionist called to say “your glasses are ready”.  When I went to pick them up, I loved them so much, I took my contacts out and wore the glasses.  I guess those glasses at 12 were a wayyyy different thing than these glasses at 42.  Just to give you a little perspective here…Sally Jesse Raphael is 83, which means she was 53 when I was 12!!!! Those glasses deserved to disappear back then!!!  (And for rats amongst  family and friends reading this, I already called my mama and confessed to ‘possibly’ losing those glasses on purpose…lol).

Now, you know nothing comes to me without a reflection of some sort.  As I thought about the realllllly old glasses I was wearing at night while I waited for my new glasses, vs the contacts I tore out to put on the new glasses, vs the new glasses that now sit on my nose, I realized that I see out of all of these lenses differently.  The really old glasses were still blurry, because the prescription was years old (and so am I), but they at least helped me to see that there were things in front of me even if I couldn’t make out exactly what those things were…I only wore them inside my house at night.  But my trusty contacts are what I wear most often, they ensure that the images I see are sharp, but boy when they get irritated they are irritating! While the new glasses also helped with sharpness, there was a moment of adjustment that had to occur until my eyes realized the contacts were out; the images weren’t sharp during that moment of adjustment, but once that moment passed, the image through those lenses became crystal clear.

That being said, sometimes it is very difficult to see our circumstances clearly until we make some necessary adjustments.  Those adjustments may be in our thoughts, our words, or our actions.  Though we don’t always think about it, the way we see things often depends on the lenses we choose to look through; and if those lenses are not clear, they can sometimes jade us into seeing things like defeat, complacency, confusion, fear, or something else. Sometimes we simply have to adjust the lenses to see our truth.

We are all different, therefore, our choice of lenses at any given point in our lives may not be the same, but there are some that are speaking to me these days.  Feel free to make any adjustments you may need to sharpen your vision.

L-choose the lens of LOVE to magnify your passion, fuel your purpose, and comfort your heart.  Love is a necessity in every aspect of your existence.

E-choose the lens of EXPECTANCY to exercise your faith in things unseen.  It’s so easy to see the negative (trust me, I know), but it’s more fruitful to see the possibility in the positive.  Expect greatness! Expect love! Expect Joy! Expect abundance!

N-choose the lens of NOW to appreciate all that you have in the present. Even if you don’t have everything you want, you have many things you need. Sometimes we dwell in the past and agonize about the future with so much ferocity, that we forget to live in a single moment of appreciation for the little things that have played a part in learning from the past and preparing for the future; and when we don’t pay attention to that, we miss the fact that the learning and preparation occurs in the present.  Embrace it!

S-choose the lens of a great SHIFT to understand the necessity of change, which precedes growth, which induces transformation.  We were not put here to stay the same, that would be boring.  The essence of who we are remains, but the evolution of who we are will continually magnify that essence.

Choose to see through the lenses of Love, with the EXPECTANCY of NOW, as you continually SHIFT into amplification of the essence that is YOU.  When you change how you see, you change what you see; and seeing is believing!!!!

Song References:  I Can See Clearly Now-Bob Marley

 Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See:  Busta Rhymes