What I See is What I Get

Good Morning!

Many of us are old enough to remember the Flip Wilson line, “What you see is what you get.” Well, more and more I am becoming aware that, “What I see is what I get.”

Lesson 181 from A Course in Miracles has put this in my face.

Perception has a focus. It is this that gives consistency to what you see. Change but this focus, and what you behold will change accordingly. Your vision now will shift, to give support to the intent which has replaced the one you held before. Remove your focus on your brother’s sins, and you experience the peace that comes from faith in sinlessness.

All my life I have been a “process improver” – someone who has been rewarded with accolades and monetarily for my ability to perceive issues and find ways to successfully address them.

This can be helpful in the business world, yet not so helpful spiritually, for, What I see is what I get.

If we accept for a second that this life I am living is my dream, not someone else’s, then what I focus on I will indeed get more of. If I seek out errors in others, that is indeed what I will see and that will indeed be how I experience that person (and, by the way, how I will experience myself). Yet if I seek out, look for, insist that I focus on the gifts that each brings, I will indeed see these and recognize more the gifts I bring, rather than my awful self-judgments.

How does this play out in my life?

More and more, I am seeing that there are conversations I can no longer have with other people. I can’t spend time in conversations that focus on what is “wrong” with my co-workers, my family members, my friends. And I can no longer have those same conversations in my head with myself.

Of course this can sound pretty Pollyannaish, not realistic, not seeing what is really there. However… What I see is what I get.

Perhaps today is a day for you to give this thought an opportunity to be a blessing to you. I invite you this day to decide with me to focus on and see only the gifts in everyone. Let your thoughts, words and actions with each person align with this view. And let’s see what we get!

If you would like, let me know how this works for you at www.practicingforgiveness.blogspot.com.

In Joy,

Michael