When I was a baby, I’m sure I saw the world differently. I think I simply saw it as it was, not much different from the open eyes of a new puppy. I don’t think I saw it as something different or distinct from me. Everything was connected, and we were all part of the same.
Gradually, my eyes turned around and I developed a view of myself. “I” came more into focus, and I developed a sense that I was different and distinct from the world. Sometimes the world served me, sometimes it became a scary place. Sometimes I asserted my growing vision of self, even with tyranny on occasion. I learned to use my turned-in eyes.
In time, I even learned how to see the world not as itself, but how it measured up to my internal images. I set expectations for those I loved, even tried to shape them, based on how I had come to see myself.
Now I’m gradually turning that vision back around, learning again what I naturally did as a baby. Seeing the world as it is, not as I have come to imagine it is or should be. Seeing others on their terms, not mine. I am regaining some sense of the web that joins me with everything.
It’s an exciting time. It is a time to turn my world around, open my eyes to see and discover what I use to think was separate and ‘out there’.