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Everyone wears glasses.
These aren’t reading glasses, or bifocals, or Ray Bans that I’m talking about. I mean the glasses through which we view the world. Sometimes they’re rose coloured. Sometimes bleak and grey. Sometimes they even keep us from seeing parts of the world at all.
We’re all good at using those blinders, aren’t we?
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There are people everywhere that we don’t see. They’re just part of a backdrop, and our brains gloss over them without registering. There are people we do see, but not clearly. Maybe our glasses tint them, hiding the things we have in common with them, or the secret struggles they face. Sometimes our glasses distort them, turning them into monsters to fear or hate.
But what if you had a day without glasses?
What if you opened your eyes, and saw for the first time that the man sitting outside your local Tim’s has a pleasant smile and a comment about the weather? What if you realized that the mom who stands beside you on the school yard really needs to talk about her aging mother-in-law and the struggles of caring for her? What about the new couple who moved in across the street fresh from Syria and could really use a set of pots and pans and a friendly hello?
Better yet, what if you wore someone else’s glasses for a day? What if you learned to see life from a different perspective?
Photo credit: Angela Eckertt
There’s only one difference between a boring, safe, self-centred life and a life of adventure, of community, and of joy.
Open your eyes.
I promise you—incredible things will happen.