Right before I started writing this post, my boyfriend Michael and I had a conversation that went all over the place, including
- different reactions to my 16-year-old son getting his wisdom teeth out yesterday,
- feelings and thoughts about recent “trivial” changes in our lives (like the paint trim on our building and a new format for a magazine I’ve subscribed to for decades),
- possible reasons why our cat Harley, who lived with other people before us, is so oddly skittish in certain situations,
- how I don’t do puzzles or read novels as I used to — before I changed careers and became a psychotherapist — possibly because my work now includes “solving” puzzles and hearing stories all the time, and
- things we wish we could “unsee” (e.g., a disturbing medical x-ray, violence, death, etc).
Are there things that you’ve seen, that you wish you could unsee? Or, for that matter, are there things you’ve heard that you wish you could unhear?
Hmmm. I’m surprised to see the turn this post is taking.
Why? Because I seem to be unseeing and unhearing acceptance, right now.
Can you see (or hear) what I mean by that?
Acceptance means acknowledging what’s been seen, heard, and otherwise experienced in the past. It doesn’t necessarily mean liking those things — it’s just acknowledging the reality of where we’ve been and where we are … allowing ourselves to be more fully in the moment and to open ourselves up to the possibilities ahead.
So …. am I unseeing the concept of acceptance here, by focusing on what we might wish we could unsee or unhear?
What do you think?
Just now, I was unseeing Oscar, who is always with me when I write these posts:
I was glad to un-un-see him, in the moment.
Sometimes, we can re-see things. Is that similar to unseeing?
For example, I used this photo in my post yesterday:
When I saw that sign at work on Friday, I saw that as “hope” and immediately took a picture of it.
After I published the post yesterday, I re-saw that sign, like so:
Where I work, people use signs on the door to signal whether it’s okay to enter. That’s an awfully short “h” in that word. Could that sign have actually said … “nope”? Is the other side of that sign …. “yep”?
If I can remember where I saw that sign at work, I’ll see if I can see the unseen side of it when I return.
Here are some more images I’ve recently seen, unseen by you (until now):
Now that you’ve seen all this, can you unsee any of it? Would you want to?
Here’s something you can choose to hear or not hear — a song by Johnny Nash I’ve used here before (but in a different version):
(See here for the YouTube video of Johnny Nash singing “I Can See Clearly Now” on a 1970’s Midnight Special)
Thanks to all — including you! — for seeing and hearing what was here, today.
Much food for thought here!
That reminds me … I haven’t had breakfast. I’m glad I saw this comment, Julie!
I suppose if you’re going to have unseeing than you may as well have unhearing or unreading, too. I like to think I’m an open-minded accepting person, but some images and words can be disturbing.
At my best, those are clues to me seeing where I’m not being accepting, to things where my ideas and reality are out of sync.
I live in a great world these days, where the door sign first reads Hope. As I think further, I wonder why anyone would have a door sign that says hope. So, I’m guessing it says nope. The other side says yep. It could be for a door to a shared room like a bathroom.
Well, that’s what thinking and over thinking can do – make up stories. In fact it’s a sign with an ambiguous H or N.
Isn’t there a saying – denial is not a river in Egypt.
I have heard and seen that saying. And I am very glad that I cannot now unsee this comment of yours. Many thanks for your thoughts.
I believe to see is to acknowledge but we must be willing to see our lives in truth and not the ‘story’ that we’ve erected behind our walls in fear. Great post! ♥
Many thanks for telling your truth here today!
I am not sure I want things to be unseen or unheard once I have seen or heard them. Definitely, I may not like what I’ve seen or heard. Certain things are definitely better not to see or hear but once they come to your awareness, they become reality to you. I guess it better learn how to let them go.
I think it’s good to learn to let things go. Something I’m happy to hold on to: this comment.
Yes Ann, there have been things I wish I could un-see or un-hear or even un-say or un-do…
Diana xo
Speaking for myself, Diana, I’m glad for every encounter I’ve had with you. xoxoxoxo
Wonderful meandering Ann.
xxx Huge Hugs xxx
Thanks for joining in — with hugs! — on the ramblings, David.
I want to unsee the unseen 😀
I see!
There are things I wish I hadn’t seen, but not here, not now, Ann. To unsee something, though, no. Can’t happen.
Speaking of too much data, though, your posts are freaking my iPad out lately. They’re taking reeeeeeeally long to load. Bumping me off. It took me three tries to get on today. I don’t know if it’s your penchant for photo-loading, or my new iOS 8, or what. Just reporting in. Anybody else having Ann blog reading troubles lately?
I’ve been wondering about my photos loading too, Mark. Amy from Petals Unfolding helpfully told me about some program to reduce the pixels in my photos. Since I saw her suggestion (which was a while ago), I have not been able to unsee it, but I don’t know how to use that program. (What I did change, after her suggestion, was to use the medium size for more photos.)
I’m wondering if there’s an easier, more automatic way to solve this (either in WordPress or when I’m taking my photos on my iPhone). I can see one possible next step: writing WordPress for help.
My guess is it has something to do with the fact that your entire posts load on your home page. That’s hundreds of photos that have to load before I can click on the top title to get to that separate entity. My second guess is it’s partly my problem, too, because my daily entry to your blog is by clicking on the icon I loaded to my home screen after I tired of toiling through my Reader. But I’m guessing too much.
I’m guessing some ways to make my photos easier to load, Mark. We shall see.
Well I read “hope”, then I thought it made better sense to be “nope”, and now I have no idea! What is the other side?!?
I’m not sure I liked reading the quote about women in history as I now wonder if that is true…
I didn’t check the sign today, Kellie. I guess I was being too “well behaved” at work! I’ll see if I can make history tomorrow. Thanks so much for your behavior here, which is perfect!
I must admit there are images I would like to unsee. The first time I saw films taken at the liberation of the Concentration camps in Germany at the end of WWII I was ill for days. I don’t wish to unsee those, I think we should all watch them, but I walk away from the TV when I know violence or fire are going to feature. I think we have the capacity to choose what is imprinted on our brains and should use it for our sanity.
I’m always glad to see you, Hilary, and to read your thoughtful and thought-provoking comments.
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