Eye Eye - Focus

"The eyes are the windows to the soul", a quote attributed to William Shakespeare. I have often heard it used as an observation from the outside looking in. That you can tell a lot about a person from their eyes, but lately I am also thinking that you can tell a lot about a person by the way they say the world looks to them, how they seem to view the world. From the inside looking out the world does not look the same to everyone. Tests can be performed to determine near-sightedness, far-sightedness, and color blindness, as well as a host of other physical differences, but sometimes the emotional differences affect our lives just as greatly if not more and they can be much more difficult to detect. For some people the world is disorderly, everything that is "out of place" is a huge problem, they can barely function without creating complete "order" in every area of their influence. For others the mirror adds countless pounds, no matter how much they lose they see themselves as weighing too much. Still others see everything as "obviously" there to in some way please or displease them, or perhaps they are sure that they see it all just the way it is and in turn know it all and it is their calling in life to share that knowledge at all times. Then there are those that don't see the chaos, it doesn't occur to them that their lives lay practically in ruins and that they are surrounded by the potential of so much more, but it has all become invisible to them as they walk the well worn paths of their daily existence. The blindnesses we have are not always detectable to ourselves or others, but in many ways they can affect every aspect of our existence. I don't know what all my vision discrepancies may be, but I do know that I see value in most things and most people, not everything, not all, but a missing button does not usually get a shirt thrown out, rude behavior does not automatically remove a person from my circle of friends. Perhaps my life would be cleaner and less dramatic if I had less tolerance for the "fixer uppers" of the world. I have my limits, there is safety to consider, and quality of life, and growth to account for. Some days I have far too much "junk" laying around waiting to be useful or mended, some days I allow far too much unkindness to be dished out in my direction, but mostly I find great satisfaction in patience, creativity, and "trash to treasure", but not always, sometimes there needs to be seasons of purging. Are these things taking up so much space that life is being hindered? Are these relationships destroying more than they are encouraging? I don't have to keep everything. I don't have to be "best friends" with every difficult person. Most things have value to someone, somewhere, but it doesn't have to be me, it doesn't have to be here. It can be hard for me to focus on the best and let the rest go.