Sunday, March 18, 2007

See while you still have the eyes




















What is it about changing the environment that stirs the senses to life, that disturbs their slumber and awakens a sharper, keener appreciation of our surroundings?

Particularly in a city there is stimulation at every turn to reward the senses, which mostly go unnoticed by the regulars who pass by the same sights and hear that same sounds each day but who are oblivious to them. Familiarity breeds blindness, not contempt.


















OFD suspects the same is true of relationships too. The early stage so blossoming in promise and possibility brings with it a heightened awareness of details on multiple levels:

...the words that are spoken

...the intonation with which they're delivered

...the way the head is held while listening with rapt attention

...and tips backwards when laughing

...the nervous fidgeting standing in the elevator

...the trance like state that pouring rain evokes

...the excitement at the prospect of the morning's first cup of coffee

...the irrepressible eagerness to share an idea that comes out as interruption

How soon these give way to numbing familiarity: the riches of human nature and individual character that disappears from view, not because they are gone but because they are no longer looked for.

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