Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Focus


Something said to me yesterday made me start thinking about "focus". I may not be able to express this as well as I want to, but am going to try because I want this to be here to remind me when I forget and am focusing on the wrong things again. This photo was taken at the Wild Horse Saloon in Nashville earlier last year and, no, I was not drunk, lol! I just couldn't seem to get my camera to take a good picture of the ceiling with all the horses "running" around on it. Actually they aren't even moving, so I think it must have been all the lights messing it up and not a bad photographer:) Still I kept the photo, because I ended up liking the way it looked even though it was all blurry, you know, out-of-focus.

A few years ago those crazy pictures were so popular with the hidden images that you could only see if you looked at it a certain way. I have to confess I was never able to see the hidden pictures. Not sure what that says about me. Hopefully not that I can only see the obvious. The point to bringing that up is what you see is often in how you look at something, how you focus.

I first began thinking about this word as it relates to my interactions with others. If there are characteristics or habits that really bother me and I go into every interaction with that person with that negativity as my focus or expectation, perhaps that is all I'll be able to see. Maybe I'll miss some hurt they are trying to hide, my opportunity to encourage, or even something positive about them. What if I expected or looked for something good? Like after you buy a blue car and then you notice blue cars like yours everywhere. You see what you are looking for. I know people won't always act like I want them to, but even in just letting go of carrying that negativity in my heart, I feel it will be like lessening a burden.

Thinking or focusing on what I want in life is another aspect of this word that I've been pondering. I know all this is not groundbreaking science, but I want to record this for me. I have done this before when I was a teenager to lose weight. I had a mental picture of walking up stairs toward an image of myself at the weight I wanted to be. I did reach that goal. But life goes on and you get busy just trying to get by and make it. You become many things-employee, wife, mother, in addition to what you were before. In the process of living, it seems I've lost much of the ability to focus. I'm very scattered, all over the place in my interests, which is not bad in itself, but then I feel like I don't accomplish what I could because of it. This will be a goal for this new year for me. I started a Visualization altered book last year which I've not finished yet(of course) so I think I will work on that as a start and/or work on this in my journals.

You need to have the ability to shift your focus though. From what I've seen of friends and family who struggle with certain mental issues, they seem to be only self-focused, unable to see outside of their own world and often self-created or imagined problems. They stay trapped in this gray, sad place when all along there is a beautiful world all around them. Their focus is what they see.

I also want to be careful that I don't focus on the faults of others so that I don't have to examine my own. This one word for some reason has made me stop and think a lot. I'll close this post for now, but may come back to write more.

5 comments:

Holly said...

Moms,
This is very good food for thought. I am going to try along side you to focus more on the positive in people and situations, and less on the negative. Thank you for posting your thoughts...I needed to hear this too :) I tried calling you last night, but you did not answer or ever call me back :( :( :( I hope you had a great day off today!

Love you,
Holly

Jeanie said...

This post has a ton of meat. Focus is not my strong point -- so many things I love -- it's hard to nail down one. I must revisit this one -- it gives me much to contemplate.

(I've never been good seeing those hidden pix either!)

Unknown said...

Hi Jill, I just stopped back over to say thank you for entering my giveaway. I didn't want to enter myself twice, well, I WOULD like double the chances to win, but I didn't want to be a "comment hog", LOL! Well, what I came to say was I appreciated you sharing the story about your maternal grandmother who tatted. Good luck to you! :)

Anne said...

Hi, Jill! This is a great post! I have a list of 8 things in front of me that I want to focus on this year. It helps me see when I get "off track" and helps me focus on what I truly do want. Good luck!

And thanks for stopping by my blog during OWOH! :-)

Terrielee said...

Hi Jill!
Great food for thought... Thank you for answering my questions regarding the use of gesso. Kind of along the same lines of thought as "Focus", I was taught that gesso is a primer. As a consequence, I've never considered using it any other way. Isn't that similar to having first impressions of people (often incorrect) and then closing the door in our hearts and minds to the complete person (both the positive and negative aspects)? I only saw gesso as a primer, now I'm going to try experimenting with it! Thank you!
Terrielee
http://rosielane.blogspot.com

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