60-Second Mind Shift: Beyond the Familiar - Seeing the Miracles Hidden in Plain Sight
Supporting you to free your mind so you can live from your heart!
“Miracles seem to me to rest not so much upon faces or voices or healing power coming suddenly near to us from afar, but upon our perceptions being made finer, so that for a moment our eyes can see and our ears can hear what is there about us always.”
-Willa Cather
Beyond the Familiar: Seeing the Miracles Hidden in Plain Sight
For over a decade I lived at the foot of the Oakland, CA hills. To reach the beautiful neighborhoods nestled above, with their sweeping views of the bay, I would walk up hidden, magical staircases interlaced throughout the hills. I had to discover them, but once I knew where they were, they became secret passageways to what felt like another world.
For years, I had a familiar route, certain staircases I always took to reach those breathtaking streets high above the city. Then one day, as I was walking, I happened to turn my head to the right instead of looking straight ahead or down at the sidewalk. To my shock I saw another staircase I had unknowingly passed by for years. My first thought was: How have I never noticed this? My second thought echoed even louder: What else am I not seeing because I stay in the comfort of the familiar route and routine?
Curious, I climbed the newly-discovered staircase, and at the top I found yet another gorgeous vista I had never seen before that was there all along. This experience felt like a miracle because it was one. In a flash of insight, I saw that just as I had been blind to this physical staircase, I was likely missing many metaphorical magical staircases in my life: new perspectives, opportunities and paths I wasn't even aware existed, only because I wasn't looking for them.
Willa Cather's words came to life in that moment: miracles are not distant, dramatic events but shifts in perception. They happen when we suddenly see what has been there all along, waiting for us to notice.
I Affirm: Today I am willing to create a slight alteration in something I do routinely and see if I have a new experience. With a light heart I ask my brain to be on the lookout for miracles today!
Step By Step,
Jessie
