My dog has a superpower. She can see through trees and over hills and into dense bushes as if they weren’t even there!
She can hear noises on another level, aware of movement way before I even know something is coming.
And the more time I spend walking with her in the woods, the more I realize that she truly has access to a whole other dimension than I do.
She is like a superhero, whose senses allow her to “see” through smells and sounds. She knows there is a deer and alerts me way before we even get close to it. And when I finally see it and realize she is right again, I just think – that is so freaking cool.
I rely on my eyesight for nearly everything. If I were blindfolded I would take 10 times as long to do anything.
My dog feels that way about her sense of smell. For dogs it is the first way they start discovering the world. Then their ears. And finally their eyes. This is what gives them their superpower of living in a world where everything is almost equally three dimensional. First she smells it, (even from inside the house with the windows open), then she hears it, and finally she (and her human) see it. And I’m like wow there’s a bunch of deer! And she’s like, yeah mom, I knew they were there 10 minutes ago.
She “sees” what I cannot. Our hikes are enthralling to her. As I gaze peacefully up at the trees and bird watch, her nose is shoved with reckless abandon into the tall grasses and leaves and bushes along the way, collecting scents and piecing together the story of what had happened here, resulting in what is clearly a much more exciting hike than mine. You see, not only is she aware of things that are there way before me, she can also “see” what WAS there earlier that day. I can always tell when a horse has been on the path, she gets a special kind of crazy for that. But it’s almost like time travel. And all I can do is look at the pretty creek and sometimes, if I get lucky, spot a heron. She experiences the present multi-dimensionally AND the past history of that location.
I get jealous. I wish I had x-ray senses so that I would know exactly what is within 100 yards of me, approaching or slinking away, or what had been hiding under that rock 10 minutes ago. I miss so much with my one-dimensional abilities! Relying on only my eyes, my vision is so limited.
But then it dawns on me – isn’t this pretty much how it is for humans too? There is clearly more than what is simply visible in the material world, more than one dimension. Yet so many of us only see that one world, and we may live our whole lives missing out on the richness of all our eyes cannot pick up.
I’m reminded of when the fox tells the Little Prince his richest secret: What is essential is invisible to the eye, you can only see clearly with the heart.
I could and should stop there, because I have nothing to add to the master author Antoine de St Exupery, but I want to unpack that thought a little.
Because there are many times in life, where what is visible to the eye is ugly, and scary, and dark. We wonder where all the good went in life. We think that what we see is the essential, the most important thing in life, and sadly it is very disheartening. So we fold back onto ourselves, and wish as we close our eyes so tightly that when we open them again we will find everything has changed and the good has come back. Make the storm go away. Make it stop hurting.
But sometimes it doesn’t.
And that is precisely why we need x-ray vision. If we can learn to hone our spiritual senses, we will have access – just like my dog – to a whole other dimension. One that does not follow the rules of the material world, but rather one that pulses to a different beat, that infuses deeper strength and joy and peace than we have ever known in the tangible world.
This is where beauty lives. This is where hope resides.
And nothing in this crazy, messed up world can reach them there.
This is the ER, the training ground and the dwelling place of the soul.
And when we learn to see that very present peace, that love and that light, the visible sights dim a little and don’t matter quite as much. The view in the spiritual realm is always beautiful, forever peaceful and breathtaking.
Take it in.
See with new eyes, let your heart guide you to what is essential.
Use your inner vision, your spirit, to connect you with a realm we may not really understand, and certainly cannot control, but that yields a powerful influence over us all – whether we see it or not. Awareness of it enriches and strengthens our whole being.
Our spirits can remain homeless our whole lives if we don’t learn to see where it dwells.
Once you learn to see it, this new aspect will both anchor you and propel you at the same time.
And I think back to how much enjoyment my dog gets out of exploring all the dimensions of her world, ‘seeing” what I cannot, smelling the past, being aware of her entire surroundings through her multiple senses. I too can see beyond what is right in front of my eyes – my current circumstances. When I look with my heart, the view is enthralling and comforting and exciting all at the same time and it never ceases to grow, satisfy and amaze me.
Life becomes so much richer, because the beauty, the peace and the confidence I uncover I can then invite back into the dimension of the physical, and it ripples all over my life.
What is essential is invisible to the eye. Take a lesson from the fox…and my dog. Open the eyes of your heart and see beyond!
TRIUMPHANTLY 