Open your eyes

“The real voyage of discovery lies not in seeking new lands, 
but in seeing with new eyes.”

~ Marcel Proust (1871-1922); novelist

How true it is that if we simply open our eyes in a new manner we will see things and people anew? In fact, it's a truth so simple that it is often overlooked. Sometimes you can't change where you are, but, by golly, you can change your attitude and outlook about it.

The past few days I have listened to "The Greatest Salesman in the World" by Og Mandino on audio during my home-school commute. If you are unfamiliar with the story, let me first begin by recommending it to you, (It's a short one but full of good thoughts!) as my dad recommended it to me a few weeks ago. It's a story of an older man who has come into the wisdom of 10 great scrolls because of his generosity to the baby Jesus. (Read it, and see for yourself!) Anyways, I have a point, and I am getting to it. (Ha ha)...

One of the scrolls says to greet each day with love in your heart (and this means enemies or those we don't feel particularly called to love in addition to our families and friends). And, wouldn't you know, I tried that today with one of my students, and it worked. I treated this student with extra gentleness and care, even when he was getting on my nerves with his interruptions. It turns out, I didn't have to go anywhere different to achieve this new knowledge, but I just had to open my eyes in a different way.

It's actually quite simple. Try it and see how it goes.