Seeing The Invisible: A Primer

"A falling tree makes more noise than a growing forest." - African Proverb

I've adored this proverb from the moment I heard it.

I find too often our collective attention is fixated on conflict, both genuine and manufactured.

Sure, conflicts need to be addressed but a consciousness only riddled with resolving fights and settling feuds misses something essential.

By bringing light to the trees growing in the background, we encounter a space of nourishment that can imbue us with the strength and resilience to navigate the falling wood.

Making choices and attempting transformation from a place of fear and hatred begets more fear and hatred.

By seeing beyond the front and center, we find an abundance of reasons to love this world as it is, despite its flaws.

By seeing behind the curtain, we find pathways to greater significance.

Then we can reckon with our own imperfections, instead of projecting our perceived lack of wholeness onto the world.

Seeing The Invisible isn’t about fabricating something from nothing or perceiving what isn’t there.

It’s about seeing what is there that we no longer notice. Countless treasures get rendered into the background as we age and our constructs of the world solidify.

Other things have always lived in the background. That is because we are much more prone to notice the dynamic aspects of our “salience landscape” rather than the still and silent ground upon which they rest. The things that remain pervasive are often left unconsidered. That which is ubiquitous becomes invisible.

Bringing these things into focus can serve as a profound wellspring of gratitude and wonder.

That is the point of Seeing The Invisible: Elevating forgotten beauty and faded appreciation so that we can live more meaningful lives.

I’ll pursue this concept from many angles. We’ll trace lines around the sleight of hand happening in everyday life so you can (hopefully) walk away with some rich insight and inspiration.

“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing which stands in the way. ... But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself. As a man is, so he sees.” -William Blake

More to come...