These should prove to be magical.
---------------------
Perhaps...
it is not the camera which cannot capture what I see with my unaided eyes.
A quality camera should be able to capture more than what the unaided eyes of people can.
I am very nearsighted.
Actually...
I was so nearsighted that I was almost legally blind less than 10 years ago
(visual acuity...not light acuity).
As a person ages...
his eyes tend to get more far sighted...
and so...
my vision has improved over 20 points over the years
(from just over 20/220 to 20/200).
But, as a result...
what I see through my unaided eyes is far more beautiful than with glasses.
(I only wear glasses when I drive).
Although almost everything is out of focus
(unless it is within a meter or so)...
particularly objects which emit, reflect, or refract light
(with their slightly pulsating and glittering effect)...
including the stars at night...
and ice crystals...
they are so much more beautiful this way.
This is one of the prime reasons I only wear glasses when I have to.
It is also one of the reasons I don't wear a hearing aid
(I am partially deaf).
The world is so much more of a beautiful place without them.
I see the world in a more general way...
without the extraneous and bothersome details present with perfect vision...
and without the obnoxiously loud sounds of everything around us.
To be able to have a more muted world...
is to have more serenity.
I can still hear what I need to
(so long as there is not competing ambient noise...
when it then becomes difficult to understand speech)...
without having to hear the small bothersome and irritating sounds of everyday life...
which allows me to listen to the music of the mind
and to be in my own world, of which is filled with such peace and serenity...
just as this music inspires...
and where you feel the music, instead of merely hearing it.
I love my 'rose colored glasses' world.
I have seen the stars with and without glasses.
To be able to see each star pulsate and glitter in the night sky
is far more preferable to seeing them as individual and
sharply focused points of lights which just boringly sit there amidst a void of darkness.
Without glasses...
the stars come alive.
They are larger and move about slightly...
and why I love to look at them.
As the stars seem to move about to the orchestra of the mind...
patterns from the random movements emerge...
and a beautiful light show is then mine.
I am the maestro...
and the stars begin to pulsate under my conduction.
When I look at icicles...
the light diffuses and the colors seem much more alive.
When I take photos of them...
I may then see them up close through the eyes of the camera
(or when I see them through glasses)...
and it is just not the same.
Why live in a world which is far less interesting...
and far less beautiful than what our minds create for us?
Yes...
I am most like...
Mr. Magoo :)
However...
the difference is...
is that I not only know the difference between reality and fantasy...
I choose to live in my world with my nearsighted eyes wide open.
---------
Sorry for the roundabout manner of the above.
My point is that by choosing what we allow to alter our perception of any situation...
by how we look at things...
by how we react to things...
by what we prioritize in life...
and how we plan accordingly...
it directly affects our lives.
When you filter out the negatives in life...
you have only the positives left
(minus the void...which can be a positive or a negative).
And when you choose to live in serenity...
you begin to see the beauty all around you...
and you enjoy the great simple pleasures in life.
Deep happiness is our sacred duty to ourselves...
and to any of those with whom we come into contact.
Yes...
I still get momentarily frustrated at times...
but it is all kept in perspective.
It is for only the briefest of moments...
and it is a relatively minor instance.
I don't blow it out of proportion...
and I certainly do not harbor anger.
I will sometimes use the catharsis of profanity...
and then...
the incident is over.
I feel better...
I usually inwardly laugh at myself...
and I am then in my world of serenity again.
(and yes...
when I fell in the snow earlier today...
there was a profane one word expletive uttered...
but, then, like a toddler...
I got back up and tottered off smiling as if nothing had happened...
while simply looking forward to playtime once again :)
When you allow your mind to become still
(made especially easy in serene settings in solitude)...
the subconscious fills your world with what your heart desires most.
The movie of the mind...
complete with a beautiful soundtrack from the orchestra of the mind playing...
becomes the movie of the heart that tells you what you most desire in life.
The problem with many people is that they engage too much with our physical world...
and not enough with our inner world.
We simply must be right with ourselves if we are to be right with the world.
Yes...
there are times when we must do things we hate
(I have a difficult time holding my tongue in some instances)...
some things which drain of us of our energy...
but what we must never do is to betray ourselves in the long run...
that of following our true path of happiness.
We only have one shot at life...
and never again.
Once you can wrap your head around this one concept...
it becomes your first step on your path to deep happiness...
where you begin to correctly prioritize things in your life...
and actually do them.
--------------
In summary:
We have but three states of being:
The Negative
The Void
The Positive
By limiting the negative...
you have more of the void and the positive.
When you fill the void with the positive...
all you have left is the positive.
By engineering this in our inner world...
we automatically see the opportunities and alternate paths in the outer world
for us to make the positive changes necessary to make them a reality.
It is not merely wishful thinking...
but the putting of ourselves on a positive path of change...
the carrying out of that path until fruition...
and of truly appreciating the grand beauty of life...
that makes the difference.
This way you become forgiving of your past...
grateful of your present...
and hopeful for your future.
This is the way to serenity.
Yes our inner world is the beautiful creation of our making. I agree that an enhanced existence is possible through our perspective and inner peace. Enjoyed your blog
ReplyDeleteThank you very much. I enjoyed your thoughtful comment.
DeleteI think that there are techniques that can capture glittering snow in photos - you can google and see - but I think the photos you took do capture a winter wonderland.
ReplyDeleteI would think that the environment you are currently in helps with filtering out the negative and having a serene outlook. Wise choice on your part!
I should really learn those techniques. I just have the camera on auto mode and I then just point and shoot.
ReplyDeleteYes, you are so correct. The isolation from the rest of the world here is so refreshing. I may remove myself from the sometimes chaotic world, and just feel the freedom and serenity of my surroundings. Of course, the real test of inner harmony lay in living in the world, but, I have already done that. And, as already having passed the test of living in harmony in the rest of the world, being here is so soul satisfying. Now, my thoughts may turn inwardly at any time, as there are no distractions or responsibilities here...just my pursuit of my passions and deep happiness in life.
Yes, our surroundings have so much to do with our ultimate happiness. This is the life I had envisioned all my working life...it had kept me going amid the frustrations of everyday life. It was so worth it...the dream becoming reality. The dream, besides having provided me the drive to continually walk the path towards it...it provides the deep satisfaction once having achieved it.
Deferred gratification manifests in long term goals and the patience to achieve them. What feeds it is having a dream to pursue. I have always loved solitude, even as a young child...and so, I had always loved dreaming about my future. Whether it was mostly nature or nurture, I cannot say. But, what I can say is that it was all worth it. There is still so much to look forward to in life, and I shall continue pursuing my passions in life until the end. A true dream never dies, and it is in the pursuit of it that serenity is born. And, yes, filtering out the negative in life greatly enhances it. I had learned early enough in life to realize that by keeping the dream alive was the most important thing to do. It gave an inner and deep happiness amidst chaos. And so, why I loved solitude the most. I created my dream world to keep me focused on the future, and it was through my created hope that kept me walking towards my goals for my future. I knew it was the actual walking of that path that mattered to achieve the positive results. I knew it was up to me, not to anyone or anything else. I, alone, would have to do it. And so, the smaller incidents in life which were negative, but out of my control, I learned to say, 'To hell with it'. I filtered out bad people, bad situations, and even my own demons on my shoulder (impulsiveness). I learned to observe others closely...to learn from their mistakes. But it was through my reading about successful people throughout history, and learning to emulate their way of thinking that I learned the most. It all boils down to having a pure and strong enough dream to pursue, coupled with the stoicism to keep walking the path regardless of our surroundings or situations. These are the progenitors of the positive habits of the truly successful.
However, for me, deep inner happiness and serenity was my ultimate goal, and not great riches or power over others. As I have no belief in an afterlife or a saving deity, I had grasped the value of time in life, and of our need to expend and manage our resources carefully...especially that of time.