Right Seeing

Eyes

On hearing of ubo's bad eyes:

At first sadness and sorrow, followed by a nervous twitching in my own, as if out of sympathy. It is said that when the right eye is infected the left will also become so-out of "sympathy"; then the terrible thought accompanied by the slight curling of the upper lip (like the portrait of Dorian Gray) : it's not me. Self-disgust that such a thought could arise. Will God record our every thought or will he let some go? Not every image is worth holding on to. The chaste gaze must know what to pay attention to, when to let go...

And then the one enduring thought, something one hopes has come from one's deepest self, a reflection of the most real part of our lives, like the silver in the mirror that lovingly brings things to the surface: an infinite thankfulness for those eyes that have looked so tenderly at me, that have looked out for me. And I feel as something has grown in me, a knot of the heart has been untied..to grow in lightness (Calvino). ..our humanity is deepened, enhanced, by looking at, and being looked at, in the right way, by the eyes of the loved ones.