"Look up to see the music... look up to see the magic"
As I've read the feedback I've received on my last few images of the fair, I've contemplated how different people see things through different eyes and perspectives. The reflection caused introspection and finally it dawned on me one of the main reasons why I see the world from a childlike perspective... I'm short!
Unlike the rest of my family, I wasn't blessed with physical height. I am 5'2" on a good day, shorter on most, and probably getting shorter as I get older. Because I've never had the pleasure of being tall, I've spent my life looking up to have conversations with just about everyone except small children.
When one spends one's life looking up just to function, one creates a habit of generally looking in the upwards direction even when not carrying on conversations with those that are vertically blessed.
A child's world is also filled with a lot of looking up. And it is always amazing to me what a child can see that adults around them don't see. Is it because adults have gotten into the habit of looking down?
Down is where there's lint in the corners that needs to be vacuumed. Down is where there's gum on the pavement you don't want to step on. Down is where the plate of spaghetti fell when it slipped from your hand and onto the newly mopped kitchen floor.
But up...
Up is where the birds sing and dreams fly. Up is where the little wish fairies fly after you've blown them off a spent dandelion. Up is where music lilts and floats on the same breeze that carries the smells of homemade bread, apple pie and hot chocolate chip cookies. Up is the direction that a child looks to meet your gaze and know how much you love her without you speaking a single word.
This week, I finally figured out that my "vertically challenged" state has blessed me with a suspended state of looking up... looking up to see the music... looking up to see the magic.
Cindy this is one inspiring post, and you keep looking up. It is always fun to be like a child, think like a child. Anna :)
ReplyDeleteI love your perspective.
ReplyDeleteI'm 5'7" and I'd like to think that I've spent a fair bit of my time looking up, as well. Probably because it was always far preferable to what the reality of my life was like at ground level.
That said, I know I was often fascinated by what I saw in the teeny, tiny macro world often found on the ground. Interesting bugs scuttling around in a forest of green grass, pollen dusting the legs of bees, and then, there are the ants...lots of good stuff down there too.
Blessings, Little One. *wink*
So I guess at 6.1 I would tower over you. That's OK, because the view from here is good also.
ReplyDeleteI think that I tend to look both up and down, things get noticed that way.
Love your perspective on this.
Jen
Kids do see things from a different perspective, in so many ways. I always have to get down on my knees to look around my classroom for potential pitfalls, and bob down on my knees to talk to the little ones. They shouldn't always have to be looking up my nose right? Love the carnival photo...reminds ME of being a kid, when it WAS more magical (and I didn't worry about creepy old dudes and getting diseases from everything).
ReplyDeleteI'm 5'1". My husband is 6'6", so I'm always looking up and I usually find magic up there, gazing back down at me.
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful post. And so true. Up is also where you can see the sky and the beautiful fluffy clouds :)
ReplyDeleteYou have a wonderful gift with thoughts and words, Cindy. I love the "up" things you talked about. So hard to get wound around and bound by the gum-on-the-pavement stuff!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing!!
Love ya, Annie