Look for the Good and You Will Find It

"What we see depends very much on what we watch." ~ John Lubbock

Have you ever noticed that as human beings, we tend to go wrong?

When we look at the world, we see a bag of crumpled food on the street and a torn curtain in the window.

When we look in the mirror, we see pores and dark circles under our eyes. We see the effects and miss the mark, or we hate the little and remember the smile.

Our eyes are focused on what is bad.

I have found it difficult to keep this habit to myself, although sometimes the veil suddenly drops, and I can see the beauty of the world around me.

Many years ago, a friend and I visited for three days in a Polish city where we were to spend a year teaching English.

When I got to the train, I was struck by a torn metal railway station and the decaying rust of old trains; as we walked along the side of the road, what the whole city looked like as a stairway with stairs leading to the Soviet era after the next.

None of us spoke, but I felt confident that my roommate's thoughts were the same as mine: That's where we would live? Would this old city solstice be our home all year long?

Just as my mind turned to where I thought I couldn’t sit here, a small bird flew down on my foot in front of my shoes, jumping a few inches here and there to catch the tops of the grass pulling out broken concrete.

I let my suitcase stand and looked. Full-blown grass full of grass, a bright orange line on the edge of the bird, the angle of the sun compared to the cracked road ... it was great. And at that moment my heart gave a trusting beat. There was also beauty here, too. I just needed to find it.

As human beings, we have choices built within seeing inefficiencies, which require adjustment, inequalities. In general, it is not wrong to see the negative… we avoid falling into the pits by looking at the pits. But seeing only the negative effects of what I call "paper towel tube view."

If you look at the empty cardboard towel tube, you only see anything that shows up in the small circle at the end of it, and nothing else. This is what we see when we see only flaws in our cheeks and only cups of coffee crumpled on the edge of life. We see anything from that little circle and lose sight of it.

Seeing good does not mean that we do not see evil. It means we throw away the paper towel tube and let our eyes take what we don’t like and invite ourselves that we’ll see the good in there, too. We allow ourselves to see it all, a great panoramic view that admits we are beyond any error or error or error.

Imagine allowing your mind to open like a large, beautiful map laid out on a table. Seeing a big picture can be a great way to see yourself with a lot of love.

Make a habit of looking good. Imagine looking at the world - or you - in a small, negative view. Then go back to mind and spread your awareness.

See with the eyes of your heart. Look for something that works, something fun, something lovely, something that opens you up.

Look for the good in people, even the people you would not like to sit with at dinner.

Look at the good in the mirror.

Let the good search become a new thing for you, and give yourself credit when you can catch anything that happens with this great idea and great heart.