"Eyes wide open:"
-(1a) full of wonder or astonishment
-(1b)having child-like simplicity, trust, or innocence
-(2)watchful and alert; to be fully aware of what's going on around you
-(3) a song by Australian musician Gotye
How many times have I heard this expression used? "I should have know better, I mean, I walked into the relationship with eyes wide open." "I'll need to keep my eyes wide open: I know this is dangerous and could burn me." "I wish I would have kept my eyes open. Maybe then I wouldn't be in this situation now." "My mother warned me to keep my eyes wide open..." etc, etc, etc.
Why do we, as a culture, feel the need to reiterate this piece of advice? And, if it's so important, why does it seem to so often go unheeded?
We are being called a generation of sleepers- a zombie horde smothered by technology, disconnect, and over scheduling. Our eyes are down on the pavement, numbly counting the cracks that we step over on our way from work to the next item on our checklist.
...one...two...three..four...five...six...
We do not have our eyes wide open. We are not full of wonder and excitement when we see the incredible blade of grass crashing through the layers of concrete like a tiny green hulk. We are not filled with astonishment when we drive by a park in the middle of winter and still see a group of red-nosed children bundled up in a calico assortment of warmth playing tag and braving the elements for the love of the sport. We are not fully aware of what's going on around us when we peck out a meaningless text as we cross a busy street. We are not watchful to see if our actions hurt others because we are too consumed with our own fatigue and disinterest.
We do not have our eyes wide open.
How can I live a life with eyes wide open, full of childish wonder and expectation of the miraculous? Life is too beautiful and too precious to miss even one second. I want to be awake!
I do not believe it is a fault in our natures but instead in the demands of our culture. Everyone knows that when you spread cream cheese too thinly on a bagal that it's hardly worth eating. The same is true for life. If we spread ourselves too thin, then our life is hardly worth living.
“Wherever you are, be all there! Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God.” -Jim Elliot
So, as we plan our schedules, we need to be prayerful. How can I have a life that both allows me to do the most and also get the most out of everything I do?
I believe that one of the most incredible experiences you can have in this life is to wrap yourself in another culture, and I mean really envelop yourself in it. Breathe it in deep until its essence coils around your bones and makes your brain hum. Soak it up until your tongue sings with the sweetness of their idioms and the tears that squeeze out from belly-aching laughter sizzle on the pavement with the burning passion of new understanding.
It's beautiful.
To lose yourself in the torrential tornado of a thousand new ideas is to find a little piece of humanity within yourself that you'd never noticed before.
But it comes at a cost.
As humans, we are bound by the limits of time and space and consciousness.
Our bodies are confined to one location at a time, and while we are in one place we will forever desire to be in another with that new fleck of discovered humanity.
We are limited by time, only able to visit one place at a time or learn one language at a time or make one new friend at at time,
And we are limited by consciousness. No matter how desperately we love someone, we cannot think of them all the time. And the more people you love, the more people that jostle for your attention in a finite world.
That is the price of falling in love with a thousand fragments of a scattered world. We are not Enough to gather them all. But, from the pieces we do manage to clutch tightly to our hearts, we are able to extrapolate an image of what we are missing.
That is where imagination proves itself to be God's greatest gift.
"I am in love with cities I've never been to and people I've never met."
With every piece of the puzzle we collect, the more we realize the cosmic infinity of our universe.
"Wonder is the beginning of wisdom." -Socrates
Wonder is the cure to the mundane, and God, as the creator of the universe, has surely proven Himself wondrous.
"Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who alone works wonders. And blessed be His glorious name forever; and may the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and Amen." – Psalm 72:18-19
God, creator of earth and the cosmos and all the heavens, how vast is your imagination! You have filled the earth with the abundance of your richness, and I count my experiences with your creation as my greatest treasures. Even though my mortal consciousness is not big enough to hold the world, I know that Yours is. You've got the whole world in your hands, so I am content with my jars of sand.
"Vale la pena"
