Seeing

I've been thinking about seeing. There are lots of things to see, unwrapped gifts and free surprises. The world is fairly studded and strewn with pennies cast broadside from a generous hand. But--and this is the point--who gets excited by a mere penny? ...It is dire poverty indeed when a man is so malnourished and fatigued that he won't stoop to pick up a penny. But if you cultivate a healthy poverty and simplicity, so that finding a penny will literally make your day, then since the world is in fact planted in pennies, you have with you poverty brought a lifetime of days. It is that simple. What you see is what you get.

--Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

About a month ago my youngest daughter and I drove through Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho to her college in Washington. Along the way we enjoyed beautiful landscapes, rich conversation, and laughter. We didn't see a single antelope. A few days after I helped her get settled in her dorm room, my husband flew up to Spokane and drove back home with me.

Along the way he spotted antelope everywhere, hundreds of them grazing in fields, standing in groups or alone, silhouetted against the blue sky. How could so many antelope magically materialize where just days before there had been none? The problem was not with the antelope, but with my ability to see them. Clearly, I wasn't really looking. There was nothing wrong with my eyes, only with the way I used them. I needed my husband to say, "There! Down in the valley, don't you see them?"  And then I did.

Life is like that. We must learn to see. We must help each other see. God strews our way with hidden gifts, but finding them is up to us.