Found by the Beacon

What we do see depends mainly on what we look for. ... In the same field the farmer will notice the crop, the geologists the fossils, botanists the flowers, artists the colouring, sportmen the cover for the game. Though we may all look at the same things, it does not all follow that we should see them.” 

 - John Lubbock, The Beauties of Nature and the Wonders of the World We Live In

It was still very dark that Sunday morning when I left the house headed for Bolivar Peninsula to take pictures of the lighthouse just across the channel that allows the Gulf of Mexico to open into Galveston Bay.  I usually like to scope new territory during the daylight before I head out during the early morning hours but I was up early and getting a shot of that lighthouse was something I put off for a while and wanted to head that way.

After getting there, driving in circles to find a spot I liked, and wishing I walked on water to shot from spots I liked more, my morning shoot of the lighthouse was over, the sun had risen and it was time to move to another location.  I started to head to Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge.

The sun came in and out of a mostly cloudy sky and I was hoping for mostly sun to allow for me to have better light to shoot in.  As I was driving I noticed a haze outside that reduced the visibility some and it was a little concerning I was driving about another hour away and the conditions outside weren't that great.  The haze surprised me as I didn't think the humidity was that bad that morning but at times we'll get smoke smoke from farmers burning fields, sometimes as far south as Mexico, so I just assumed it was smoke causing the haze.

It took me a while to think that maybe it was my windshields, so I pushed the windshield washer button on my steering control controller and amazing in a few seconds the haze was gone and my vision was clear. 

I started to think about it in a different way and how sometimes what we think is the issue, isn't really the issue.  Sometimes what concerns us in life is related more to how we are looking at them than how they really are - our vision tainted a little.

During my drive it was a slow transition from the dark to the daylight and not recognizing that my vision was distorted I accepted what I was seeing and thought the problem was outside my control. I couldn't see the real issue, but it was there.

I have been driving in life for a long time.  We all have some time under our belts.  As we look ahead we may only be seeing as clear as we have been conditioned, and don't realize that our vision could be clearer if we had one of those wipers to wipe away that 'hazy film'.

I know through that little episode driving that early Sunday morning it has made me realize that not everything I think about may be clear, that maybe over time my thinking has become clouded, and my perceptions are just that…they are mine.

So with that said, today I try to think about why I have certain beliefs, act the way I do, and feel about things the way I do.  To see things clearer I need to begin force myself to look at people, events, and circumstances differently and question if I have clarity and challenge myself.

I don't know if much of me will change…..but I am not opposed to it….if the wipers make me see it differently.