Hourglass Heirlooms? Eyes that see

Sadly or perhaps gratefully I have at long last reached that awkward stage in life where I cannot see with my glasses on (I wear progressive lenses) or with them off. Therefore, I am constantly carrying them around with me and panic like crazy when I misplace them. (No I will NOT get one of those god awful chains to wear about my neck... I still have some pride you know lol). I have been fortunate not to truly need glasses until now, given the fact that histoplamosis took the vision from my left eye when I was 12... nearly 43 years ago. Therefore, I have always been acutely aware of how precious our ability to see clearly truly it.

A friend of mine, Vickie Stadtler is an extraordinary artist who paints beautiful "muses" out of water color and oil which, in my opinion, are breathtaking in their exquisite detail. Her eyes and hands apprehend a visual catalog of a woman's daily needs with astonishing attention to subtle nuances. Artists especially hold sacred the sense of sight.

"If only we could pull out our brains and use only our eyes to see" said Pablo Picasso. Oh, how I do agree with him. My daughter once quipped to me that where she thought the Grand Canyon was pretty.. it was really nothing more than a hole in the ground. Yet, I never tire of going up there to see the absolute beauty of God's creation or the palette that Nature uses with her shadows of light.

Matisse doubted his own powers of perception and worried that the authenticity of his art was nothing more than a quirk of nature: cataracts. Because he had trouble with his eyesight, he wondered if the unique way of seeing the world which he captured for posterity on canvas in painstaking single brush strokes might be more accident then nature. I beg to differ Sir Matisse... there are no accidents and God guided your hand.

However, when Georgia O'Keefe, a sensual painter of flowers said "in a way nobody sees a flower really, it is so small we haven't the time -- and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time"; I think I finally understood the value of sight.

You see dear reader, it takes time to see and the majority of us do not have the time. Sadly that is the unrelenting truth and it chills me to the soul. The majority of us have been given a miraculous gift; the gift of sight, but we seldom if ever take the time to do more than glance around. We take this wonderful sense for granted. So, today, please take time. Make Time.

Today, REALLY look around at your world. Look at your family, your home, your pets, your co-workers, and the strangers you pass on the street. Smile at EVERYONE you meet because you CAN see them. Never forget that the gift of sight was so important that when this world was created, the first real creation was light in order to see. We need light to cast shadows upon growth and miracles. We need light to see all that is good.

Then we need to be ABLE to see how good it is too.

HOURGLASS HEIRLOOM
Lenses from her bifocals
will be ground into sand.

Then they can sift through a
perpetual glass prison
in an hourglass heirloom.

Upon death,
the living grind glass
and add vision to the timepiece
so the rest of the chain
can see glints of stray light
and insight from
ancient eyes
that flash into
young pupils.

Each contribution
lengthens time
as each old ghost
lends a hand
to the living.
©Bonnie Pike 2001