Look Without Seeing

I was listening to a podcast today. It was an interview with Michael Gelb who wrote "How to Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci." Da Vinci said "People look without seeing, hear without listening, eat without awareness of taste, touch without feeling and talk without thinking." It's almost six hundred years later and this quote still rings true.
Life can be a drudgery if you let it. But it can also be quite remarkable in unexpected ways. In one of my daily newsletters it talked about life around us. Even cities are teaming with life. Birds, bees, chipmunks and squirrels. Flowers spring up out of window boxes and roof tops.
One of the things I remember most about Hammond, Indiana when I was six years old was the smell of fresh baked bread at an Italian bakery near where my grandmother lived.
How do you get from being a spectator in life to a participant? It's not hard, but it takes some practice. The next time you get a chance to go for a walk, walk outside instead of inside on a treadmill. If you have a small camera, take it with you. As you walk, be mindful of the sights and sounds around you......see if you see wildflowers, birds or maybe a chameleon. Find something to photograph. Forget about work, forget about the bills, forget about the chores and just be there..in the moment and try to use every one of your senses.
I challenge everyone of you to "see" something that you've never seen before. If you get a good picture, send it to me and I'll share it on the blog.