How I see the world

I know you’ve heard these words by Edward Blake before but this piece is one of my favourites and I think it’s important that I take a moment to dwell on this.

…a world in a grain of sand… on a beach surrounded by many hundreds of thousands of grains of sand – so many thousands of possible worlds…

…to see heaven in a wild flower…  this resonates with me because I have at certain times seen instances of what appears to be minute but perfect beauty (a very very tiny plant starting to unfold, a perfect miniature seahorse, an exquisite infinitesimal shell or some other minuscule wonder of nature) that has left me speechless and in awe, filled with wonder and joy and overwhelmed by this tiny beautiful thing that I could so easily have passed by without noticing… but for some reason I did…

…hold infinity in the palm of your hand – so beautifully poetic but nope, I  can’t get my mind around that – or eternity in an hour…

What this speaks of to me is perspective. How might my world be if I were to take a look from a totally different perspective? Instead of seeing the world I know as it, as Earth, perhaps I imagine many hundreds of possible worlds, be they parallel universes or not, what if…

What if those other worlds existed in a universe I can’t see with my eyes, or through a telescope or a microscope but I could start to see it in my imagination or in my spirit or it were present in a dimension that is not able to be observed by my physical senses…

What if I could see the world in a leaf – to see at a microscopic level all of the microorganisms dependent on that leaf – whether flora or fauna – what if I was aware of the microbiology around me which I unknowingly encounter every day?

What if I were more aware of the cosmic beauty of the galaxies and solar systems that my senses can observe – if I just took the time to do so – or if I were to learn about all the strange and wonderful sea creatures which live in the ocean depths?

What if I were to see my neighbour as a part of his own unique world, rather than simply seeing my assumptions about his life?

What if I took the time to view my world afresh – with new eyes – what if I observed the clouds and the colours in the sky through out the day, not just at sunset; if I look for life where I don’t expect it, I might begin to perceive inspiration and joy where I haven’t seen them before; I might begin to see beauty in the mundane; the extraordinary in the ordinary…  a world in a grain of sand…