How We Come to See the World—and Ourselves
🚪Opening: There Is a Subtle Difference
There is a subtle difference between sight and seeing.
One happens with the eyes.
The other happens with the soul.
Sight is passive. Automatic.
It registers light and shape, surface and speed.
But seeing—real seeing—requires presence.
It asks something of us.
It asks us to slow down.
To question what we’ve been taught to notice.
To admit what we’ve been taught to ignore.
We think we’re just looking.
But we’re always looking through something.
A story. A wound. A hope.
A lens.
And when the lens shifts—
so does the world.
🌀 The Spiral of Seeing
We don’t just grow up.
We grow through.
And each season of becoming brings with it a lens—
a way of seeing the world, ourselves, and what matters.
But we rarely notice the lens we’re living through…
until it cracks.
🌟 Wonder
The lens we’re born with.
We begin in awe.
Everything is new. Possible. Alive.
Even the ordinary has magic.
We name clouds.
Talk to shadows.
See faces in the moonlight.
This is the lens of trust, play, and sacred curiosity.
But most of us don’t get to keep it for long.
Someone tells us the world isn’t safe.
Or that there’s no time to waste.
Or that grown-ups don’t cry, don’t ask, don’t dream.
So wonder becomes a luxury.
And the lens shifts.
⚖️ Weight
The lens of responsibility, fear, and performance.
Here, we begin to measure.
Ourselves. Each other. Time. Value. Success. Love.
We start to carry what we were told matters:
Grades. Goals. Respect. Control. Approval.
This is where we become efficient.
But also cautious. Tired. Sometimes cynical.
We see the world not as possibility—but as pressure.
And when the weight gets too heavy to perform,
the lens cracks again.
🌿 Wisdom
The lens that returns—not to what was, but to what’s real.
Wisdom doesn’t erase wonder or weight.
It weaves them.
It sees the beauty and the cost.
The ache and the grace.
It no longer needs certainty to feel secure.
Wisdom doesn’t simplify life.
It dignifies it.
And it’s not the final destination.
Because even wisdom is a lens.
And seeing—true seeing—is always changing.
💥 When the Lens Cracks
We rarely choose to see differently.
We are shown.
Usually through something we didn’t expect:
A betrayal.
A diagnosis.
A grief that won’t stay quiet.
A child’s question that undoes your answer.
Or something gentler—
a poem,
a prayer,
a person who saw through your performance
and didn’t flinch.
And suddenly, the lens you were living through
doesn’t work anymore.
The world hasn’t changed.
But you have.
Wonder becomes weight.
Weight gives way to wisdom.
But not in a straight line.
It’s a spiral.
You return to old places
with new eyes.
You revisit old wounds
with new hands.
And with each loop,
the lens becomes a little clearer—
not because the world got easier,
but because you’re no longer pretending to see what you were told to.
🧬 What Shapes the Lens?
We don’t choose our first lens.
It’s given to us.
Handed down through family,
faith,
culture,
school,
survival.
Some of us were taught to see the world as dangerous.
To scan for threat.
To seek approval.
To stay small.
Others were taught to win.
To lead.
To dominate.
To be right at all costs.
Some of us were handed silence and called it peace.
Others were handed noise and called it love.
We’re shaped by more than we know.
The beliefs of those who raised us.
The systems that raised them.
The language we were praised for.
The questions we weren’t allowed to ask.
And without knowing it,
we learn what to notice—
and what to ignore.
What to name sacred—
and what to dismiss as weakness.
And then one day,
we catch ourselves reacting to something
with intensity we didn’t expect.
Or we hear a child ask why the sky is purple tonight—
and realize we forgot to look up for years.
That’s when we remember:
we’re not just seeing the world.
We’re seeing our conditioning.
🔭 Seeing as a Spiritual Practice
To see clearly
is not to have all the answers—
but to stop living as if you do.
Seeing is not passive.
It’s devotional.
A practice of presence.
Of releasing judgment.
Of noticing what we once ignored.
The most awakened people aren’t the loudest.
They’re often the quietest in the room.
Because they’re still paying attention.
They’ve stopped needing the world to look a certain way
in order to love it.
They’ve stopped needing certainty
to choose compassion.
They know that the lens is always changing.
And they welcome it.
Because truth isn’t something we own.
It’s something we practice seeing.
Not once.
But again and again—
each time with more grace.
🌊You Don’t Just Live. You Live Through.
We like to think we see the world as it is.
But the truth is—
we see it as we are.
We don’t just live.
We live through.
Through stories.
Through memory.
Through meaning, inherited or earned.
Through lenses—some handed down,
some broken open,
some chosen with care.
And the real shift isn’t just when we change what we see.
It’s when we realize we can choose to see differently.
That’s where freedom begins.
Not in knowing everything.
But in seeing enough—
to live more whole, more present, more true.