The Other Side of Blind Spots

Macrina Weiderkehr has a priceless little poem that reads,

 

Believe the truth about yourself

No matter how beautiful it is. 

 

I can take this affirmation a step farther and say that we must also believe the truth about the people around us and believe the truth about the world that we see around us, no matter how beautiful it is.  We spend so much of our time focused on what is wrong.  On what is wrong with the world, with our children, with ourselves, with the people we work with, with the guy in the car in front of us.  What if we chose to believe the truth instead? 

 

But, what is the truth?  There must be some ultimate truth out there, but if there is, I am certainly not the keeper of it.   So I can only say what feels most true for me today.  My truth is that God completely imbues this world.  For me God tends to be like a screen behind everything that I see around me or the canvas upon which a beautiful work of art rests. But, in order for me to see past my blind spots, God must be the paint, not the canvas.  I am called to first see God in my child, before I see the issue or the difficulty.  To first see God when I look out my window and see a gray day when I was hoping for sunshine.  To see God first in the person sitting across the table from me who has a completely different opinion from my own.  And maybe most importantly, to see God when I look into my own heart and my own mind even when I feel that I have completely blown it yet again. 

 

I’m learning to know and accept the truth about myself, no matter how wrong or broken or unaware I can be sometimes.  And I am learning to believe in the great beauty of being human.