“Sometimes you just close your eyes and walk.”
Cambodian Proverb
What Will We See?
Many faces adorn the pillars of The Bayon, a temple in the Angkor Wat Complex in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Yet, each of these faces differ. Some have eyes wide open, some eyes half shut, and others eyes closed. Although there are many lessons from these magnificent carvings, the idea that sometimes we must close our physical eyes to move forward seems to be such a paradox.
How will we see? How will we know where our feet fall upon the path if we do not keep our eyes wide open?
Perhaps we could ask the more pertinent question: what will we allow ourselves to see?
Will you see the sunrise? Is it worth the sacrifice to arise at 3:00 in the morning and make the journey to see the sun majestically surmount the peaks of a tremendous mountain?
Perhaps your mountain is the lotus towers of Angkor Wat, set darkly and imposing but unseen. How often are there physically present mountains and mammoth structures before our eyes, but we cannot or will not see them for the darkness? And then it arrives. A glow. Each minute brings the added illumination. Brighter and brighter it grows.
Will you see the sun rise? Many have come, and yet many depart prematurely, thinking that those first dull glimmers represented enough of the full light they needed. Enough for the moment. And what of those who remain steadfastly looking heavenward and searching with eyes wide open for the anticipated perspective? Those who remain witness the miraculous ascent of vibrant colors spreading over the entire sky and a ball of intensity forcing the eyes to shut and bask in its incomprehensible radiance. Where darkness once masked the mountainous temple, its five beautiful towers present themselves.
Will we choose to see it? What will be our perspective?
We can choose to see the sun rise. Yet, do we work to witness the light of awareness dawn upon our minds and fix our eyes with a new perspective? Do we capture the moment with our new vision? We close our eyes. We close our eyes to the bad and flawed, and we open our inner eyes to recall the beauty and the good. The vision of hope.
As our team members will discover through genuine and purposeful service, seeking out the needs and wants of others, that we have the ability to nurture a dawning and renewal of perspective in people’s lives. When we offer each individual the dignity worthy of every human life, we help others begin to see the intrinsic value within themselves. Conditions are not people. When we close our physical eyes to differences and status, we open the eyes of our hearts and our minds to see, feel, and experience with a new perception, one more willing to accept others with love, kindness, and empathy.
What will we allow ourselves to see? Our service perspective will teach us that we are all people having a human experience and that we need one another. No matter what part of the world we dwell in, no matter the language and cultural challenges, we can connect as people who feel deeply enough to laugh and cry, who have ideas to share, and who have the right to choose happiness.
Sometimes we just close our eyes and go forward with a new perspective, loving and serving without question or condemnation.