I realized something today that I didn’t quite realize before and frankly it’s put me quite to shame. I realized that I despite being an avid green lover and proud fan of sustainable living was actually just as guilty as any other when it came to appreciation for nature.
How this is thought come about? Simple…when I found myself in a no way out but to sit it out situation where I did more observe and listen than talk/sound. No I didn’t lose my voice to laryngitis nor was I given a gag order, I was simply sent on assignment to a beautiful foreign country where I did not speak the local language and the barely spoke any else besides it.
If you think it’s neat how adaptable nature is for survival (like how trees with roots that can reach far into the ground for water) then you will be amazed by the natural instincts in you that take over the driver’s seat when you’re in an unfamiliar situation. In my case I found myself becoming very alert towards movements and reactions that helped me understand what was happening around me despite not being able to understand a conversation word for word.
But on top of that, I learned to really look into the eyes of the people talking to me, engaging in the conversation through the lock in of eye contact. I’m not saying that I don’t look at people when I talk to them but I surely didn’t notice how beautiful the human iris can be. I found myself in love with the colours of the eye – the blues, the greens, the browns all almost surreal and glass like. I also found myself appreciating how beautiful it looked when the trees swayed in the winds…
I wasn’t staring at them in a ‘I’m studying your eyeballs’ sort of way but for once in a more appreciative way. And each time I looked into a pair of eyes (seriously I noted that the eyes of the locals are very light glass like no matter what their colour – very beautiful) I think about how ridicules ‘artificial eye colour’/coloured contacts are. As advanced as our technology is, in no way were the dot matrix, limbal ring or hand painted enhanced coloured contacts anything remotely close to the natural iris.
Doing less talking for a whole month made me see the things that nature makes that are far superior than any mimic version we’ll ever replicate is right before my eyes. I don’t need to refer to flowers or animals to see that wonder, I just have to look into eyes…
