Perception Once Again
While walking Sivanna to Daycare the other day, I was once again reminded about perception and its many guises and how quickly it can manifest. We were walking along the fence that adjoins the playground and Sivanna said “Look Mom someone left their sweater, it must be a teacher’s”. I looked over, saw a navy blue sweater draped over a log, and agreed with her. “Yes, honey somebody did and you are right it must be a teachers”, I said, judging by the size. We proceeded into the school where the children were gathered and I mentioned the sweater to the teachers. They agreed that this was possible as it was hot and cold and they had been adjusting their clothing to accommodate the weather. I left the building and started on my walk home. While passing “the sweater” I realized it was not a sweater at all, it was a navy blue towel! Both Sivanna and I had seen a navy blue sweater that would fit the teachers. What a great example of perception and building beliefs. Not only did we both believe there was a sweater but we added more thoughts to it which became beliefs i.e. who’s sweater is was. Perception is like that. We take something and use perception to make a whole new creation by adding thoughts and judgements. The point of power however; is truly in knowing it is our creation. Perception is a filter, a tool, to use to perceive and decipher and relate back to us a form of clarity or understanding. We need to tread lightly with perception and to beware of its many guises and its easy ability to mold itself into beliefs. Perception and judgement can often be found hand in hand and the tool (a verb) of perception now becomes a noun, “Judgement”. Judgement reminds me of vines. The kind of vines that wrap themselves around whatever they can, the kind that gets into the tiniest nooks and crannies, the kind that become steadfast and sturdy and almost impossible to loosen. Awareness is the first step to loosening our judgements and questioning our perceptions. When we do this, we are more free to observe and see the world in it’s perfect divine order and are better able to discern “what is" and to experience the freedom of non-judgement and move to unconditional love.
