July 03, 2024

Seeing and Writing with “New Eyes” by Sandi Somers

 


It all began in March 2020, when COVID locked us in from many events and contacts with people. That included church attendance. While I watched services online, I needed more for Sunday morning, and so I decided to go bird watching. I first visited Inglewood Bird Sanctuary in Calgary where I had taken my first birding courses in the 1980s. Memories of walking the paths and discovering birds new to me flooded my mind, and I felt as though I were back in those years, breathing its summer air, and feeling its warmth. 

That first morning of birdwatching in 2020, I felt a great nostalgia for those days. But soon I realized I couldn’t live in the past. I needed to build new and meaningful memories.   

I seized every sunny Sunday morning to go birding, frequenting pond and lake sites that I had visited in early expeditions. In the exhilaration of early mornings with the sun peeking over the eastern horizon, my spirit worshipped God and the wonders of His creation: “How majestic is your name in all the earth!” (Psalm 8:1,9 NIV). 

That year, I took time, leisurely focussing my binoculars on the distinguishing visual features and actions of the birds, and then, sitting on park benches, I carefully checked my bird books and chatted with expert birders who guided me in identifying new-to-me birds. Once home, I journalled many of my weekend adventures and drafted articles and devotions, some of which have been published. 

As the weeks went by, new visions of Alberta’s natural history spurred me on. That’s when Proust’s famous quote became a major turning point for me.  His “voyage of discovery” means we shift our sights and "look at the details of our lives with a scintillating freshness"[i], Introduction  Sometimes we don’t realize how God gives us important gifts from our own “back yard” so to speak, even during times of restrictions. 

Eugene Peterson, pastor and author, asked his readers: [D]o we take what is right before us in our own backyard and sink our lives into what is already given to us, enter into the intricacies, the endless organic relationships that make up this world?”[ii] 

To see with new eyes, you need to “(a)bsorb everything you see and hear and feel and touch - or rather as much as you can. Harness all your past experiences and turn them into your writing”[iii] The deeper we pay attention to details of our lives, God will give us newness in what previously seemed ordinary or even restrictive. He will give us a fresh perspective that brings richness to our writing. 

Discovering the same landscapes with “new eyes” that year meant much to me as both a nature lover and as a writer. When I discovered Proust’s quote, I posted it on my fridge to remind me of 2020 when seeing life with new eyes means finding new freedom and expansiveness to write with newfound treasures from what before had seemed ordinary. 



[i]Lilburn's introduction to Don Domanski, Selected Poems, 1975-2021 (London: Xylem Books, 2022).[ii]Eugene Peterson, Eat this Book: Conversations on the Art of Spiritual Reading), Grand Rapids MI: William B Eerdmans, 2006), 44-45.  

[iii] Source unknown

15 comments:

  1. Amen, dear Sandi, to these wonderful words of yours: "The deeper we pay attention to details of our lives, God will give us newness in what previously seemed ordinary or even restrictive."
    I love how God speaks to us in the ordinary when we trust His extraordinary leading. He's so good, so generous.
    Blessings.

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    1. How true that God speaks to us in what seems ordinary. Thanks for your comments.

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  2. What caught my eye this morning are your words "...soon I realized I couldn’t live in the past. I needed to build new and meaningful memories." I have nearly the same words written in my own journal. For that was me exactly during these last few years. Yes, old memories are good but I yearn to live in the present and create new, meaningful ones. You always put so much thought (and research) into your pieces - this post was another delight to read. Thank you, Sandi.

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    1. Thanks for your comment, Brenda. Yes, it's so important that we take hold of the present and move in the direction God is leading us.

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    2. Thanks also for your affirmation of my writing, Brenda!

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  3. This is such a lovely post. It certainly made me consider the wisdom of seeing the world with new eyes and allowing God to permeate our thoughts...

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    1. "...allowing God to permeate our thoughts". That's a wonderful way of describing what God can do when we allow Him in.

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  4. Anonymous2:07 pm GMT-7

    New eyes. A phrase I will talk into my memory and use regularly Brenda Wood

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    1. Thanks, Brenda. I'm so glad you'll incorporate this phrase into your memory and writing.

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  5. Bob Jones6:25 pm GMT-7

    Sandi, your discovery is one more good thing that came out of COVID.

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    1. Anonymous7:59 pm GMT-7

      Thanks Bob. Yes, wonderful things can come out of what seems negative or even disastrous!

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  6. Michelle Strutzenberger1:35 pm GMT-7

    There is much wisdom in this sentence: "The deeper we pay attention to details of our lives, God will give us newness in what previously seemed ordinary or even restrictive." I am one who finds it so easy to brush past the details in life. Thank you for the reminder about the blessings that come from taking the time to dig deeper.

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    1. Thanks, Michelle, for your observation that we can often brush past the significant moments and events in our lives. It pays to notice, and then notice what God is doing through that experience.

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  7. This post is absolutely wonderful, Sandi. I also have a love of birds and though I haven’t been out ‘birding’ I would love to get involved with it some day. “New eyes” reminded me of two verses; the Lord’s mercies being new every morning from Lamentations and the verse from Isaiah 43:19 “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Praying that He gives us each new eyes and new vision. Thank you.

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    1. Thanks, Sharon. What a wonderful addition to the concept of seeing life through "new eyes"! God is always at work giving us "new things" in whatever life hands us.

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