Seeing clearly is a phrase that is simple, almost redundant and yet profound, and complicated. It is obvious that we all want to see clearly; we would like to be able to see our friends clearly, so we can have a clear sense of who they are and where in life they find themselves, and so we can fully understand what they are going through when they open up to us; we would like to see our life path clearly, allowing us to know which decisions are right, which paths are in line with our watercourse way.
At the same time, the moments or periods when we can safely say that we were seeing clearly tend to be rare. It is much more accurate to say that our interactions with friends are clouded by our own expectations, desires and our current emotional, physical, spiritual state; that our perception of where we stand in life is vague, shifting from day to day, even hour to hour. We rarely see a friend in their entirety, and, sadly, rarely are we ourselves seen in our entirety.
Nobody sees a flower really; it is so small. We haven’t time, and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.
– Georgia O’Keefe
It is possible that you have felt fully seen at some point, maybe by a teacher, or by a friend, and I’d venture to say that it was a life-changing experience, or at least a very memorable one. The much more common experience is that of not being seen; of not having someone stop long enough to really see you, and listen to you.
My impression is that the very first step to creating a healing relationship is seeing clearly; if a therapist/bodyworker does nothing more than this, sees his/her client clearly, then the session will be a success; if he does everything but that then success is impossible.
“If you treat a man as he appears to be,
you make him worse than he is.
But if you treat a man as if he already were
What he potentially could be,
You make him what he is destined to be.”
– Wolfgang von Goethe
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.