Moments of Impact….

Can you see it? Can you see the image of the bird?

While I was sitting on the ferry from Horseshoe Bay to Bowen Island yesterday I was captivated by the warm sun pouring through the windows. For me, it has been a long winter, but then again, for this sun loving person, winter is always long. As I gazed out the ferry window I sensed the constantly shifting movement of someone around me. As I looked over I saw a man determined to take a picture. He chose a variety of angles as he looked around to see if anyone had noticed what had captured his attention. No seemed interested in his frenzied efforts to photograph something that seemed to really stir him. I had to ask him what he was so interested by and he looked at me like I was blind. I am, in my opinion (ooops…dangerous thinking there), a fairly aware person and I could not see what he was looking at…. that is…. until he pointed it out….

There, on the huge front window of the ferry, was the dusted picture of a bird (looks kind of like an owl to me) and once I could see it, I could not stop seeing it. Once it was pointed out, once it entered into the forefront, once I was willing to accept that it was there, and once I was willing to accept that I could not see it on my own… there it was…. in full glory. I had to photograph it. I suddenly understood the man who first saw it and I understood his shock that no one else was seeing it. ~~~~~~~~~~

I struggled to find the angle of view that would allow it to be photographed. I had to grab this moment and hold it in a tangible way. I needed to have a reminder of just how easy it is to miss a moment, to be blind to the creative, to have a scotoma (blindspot) that actually blocked my physical vision…. wow… I needed that picture. As we walked off the ferry, all I could think about was what else I was missing…. and then I began to connect some dots in a very real way…

Just as I could not see the reflection of the bird in the window until I allowed it to be brought to the forefront, I have also not seen who I really am, what I offer through my creative courage as I move through the world, the gifts and talents that are embedded in my soul like blood in my veins, and the impact of my compassion on a single human life. I have done so much inner work as I have traversed this journey called life. I have made daily choices to see and experience the people and the natural world around me yet, I did not realize the importance of choosing to look for me beyond the blindspots. I believe that blindspots can occur through so many ways including the lies that others tell us about ourselves. Lies like, “You are too much…(pick your word)”, “You will never…”, “You are not… .” Lies that diminish who we really are in the world and the impact we make. In believing those lies we make ourselves smaller and smaller until we disappear into the background.

Moments…. moments that impact, that stir, that challenge… these moments continue to inform me that there is soooooo much more to this life, to people, to experience, and to myself than can be seen on first glance. Single moments have the capacity to create an awakening in places within that have been just waiting rise up and say, “Here I am!!” Allowing those moments, making space for their teaching, accepting their glorious and challenging insights, helps me to become even more open, more aware, and more ready to grow and hopefully be witness to a truth I have come to believe wholeheartedly….. Just a little Hope is all it takes.