Adrianna C - Landscapes - Seeing with your eyes

How does one learn to see with their eyes?

Landscapes of the Sacred

Lane’s discussion of masks of the holy is one that I have never thought to really let permeate my mental state. As a communication major we often times talk about the different selves (or masks) we put on in the different arenas we participate in. I am a student in the classroom, a daughter at home, a bible study leader on Monday nights, and a mentor at the high school; meaning that I am covering up a specific part of me to portray the “me” I want others to see in at that specific time.  And it takes a critical, curious eye for one to get underneath the masks.

To think of the ordinary as mask of the holy to me means that everyday things we oftentimes take for granted are truly the holy. And it takes someone desiring the holy to perceive the ordinary as holy and remove the mask of every day. Yes, this suggests that everything is holy and everything can be holy but that’s certainly not what I believe.

Let’s go back to the beginning: Sacred place chooses it is not chosen, aka, the holy removes the mask when it desires to reveal itself to us in the ordinary things. I definitely do not think every moment is sacred or every place has sanctity but I do think the holy can be reached anywhere.

So how does one learn to see with their eyes? The simplest answer I can think of: by opening them up. Seeing is not just physically seeing things but encountering things, felling things, being in the fullness of something. When I first see something I place my perception on it: I’m inside a classroom. Outside the window there’s a tree, the branches are moving, though I am not encountering the wind I can deduce that there is wind blowing. I saw the tree but what I think we’ve been learning in class is to “see” not with our eyes but with our hearts, minds and spirit. Disregarding the element of sight and seeing with our other senses and that is when the mask of the holy is removed.

Learning to “see” takes a critical and in most cases an innate desire to see without the eyes. No, everything isn’t considered holy nor every place sacred but one could definitely miss out on an opportunity to encounter the sacred is there eyes are “closed”.  Have you seen without your eyes and looked at the mask more in depth?