Marcel Proust is quoted as saying “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.” Wow, just sit with that thought for a moment: we do not have to go anywhere to encounter a discovery worth noting, we do not have to spend money or hire an exotic form of transportation, all we have to do is be willing to look at what is around us right now with new eyes.
What does this phrase “new eyes” mean? In our every day experience we get used to seeing this person at that desk at this time, it becomes so expected we might actually not notice that the person is not at their desk at that time, we simply assume they are. When this happens we are looking through what might be referred to as “old eyes.”
How much of the wonder of our world do we overlook simply because we look only through the “old eyes” of expectation. Did you notice the house three down from yours got a paint job? Did you notice the receptionist has changed their hair color? The sun sets every day, did you notice how remarkable it was yesterday?
All around us are discoveries waiting to be noticed, discoveries about things we see every day, and all we need to take in this wonder is to look through new eyes. Pretty simple huh? Well most of the really great things in life are just that simple.
