Where's our focus?

Things are not always what we think they are.

Or, seeing is not believing.

This little optical illusion is making its way around the Internet.

The link below goes to a circle of moving dots. They appear to be all pink. But if you focus on the center of the circle, one dot becomes green and scurries around the circumference.

The instructions say if you really focus on the center of the circle, the pink dots fade away, and you only see the green dot.

http://www.tonyboon.co.uk/imgs/illusions/dotcircle.htm

One conclusion might be that what we see depends on where we look, where our focus is.

Taking this a step further, if we are looking only at all our problems (all those pink dots), that's all we are going to see.

But if we change our focus to the good that is central to our very being, to that Higher Power that most people believe in, we see something that wasn't apparent before.

And then, instead of just going around and around in circles, our glimpse of spiritual reality (green dot) leads us to think in new ways that break out of the cycles of limitation. Solutions become apparent, even if sometimes only a step at a time.

Our willingness to leave old ways of looking at things for more inspired views gives us courage to take steps we might not have thought of before.

We are never trapped. Often what's needed for progress is a change of focus.

A 19th century spiritually-minded woman observed,

Mortal mind sees what it believes
as certainly as it believes what it sees.
Mary Baker Eddy
`

What are you watching? And does it matter?

True. Another video. And, alas, it may not be the last.

The video below hopes to alert drivers to be aware of bicyclers so that they will drive carefully and share the road. The ad plays upon the tendency of the human mind to be easily distracted to the point of not seeing people or activities right in front of us.

How true it is that we walk (literally and metaphorically) in the direction we are looking.

As an example, my husband with a grin tells the story of his sister's first time driving a motor scooter. When she turned her head to the right to look over her shoulder, the motor scooter veered sharply to the right, nearly taking her off the road. A moment's distraction unexpectedly and drastically changed her direction.

Life seems sometimes like a three-ring circus. As we watch the clowns in one ring, we miss the acrobats in the second ring, and the horses in the third. It seems like we are always going to be missing something. Yet we can take control of our worldview.

It's too easy to let worry, injustice, self-pity, or self-importance preoccupy our thoughts. But this inward-turning is a miniscule part of what's going on in the world at any given moment.

There is wondrous goodness and beauty, kindness and caring filling each day. While some distractions, like the one in the video, are harmless, others can totally grab our attention with startling consequences.

Whatever we focus on becomes a major part of our experience.

So it makes sense to pay attention to the do-gooders -- and that term is used in the best possible sense -- of this world. People who sarcifice and ask nothing in return; people such as deeply devoted religious figures both past and present, as well as unsung heroes: helpers, care givers, rescuers, etc.

Making the effort to discover active goodness and to appreciate the unselfishness of others lifts our thought above the mesmeric replay of tragedy, and we help the world move forward.

Optical illusions - things are not always what they appear to be

If you want to have some fun, look at the following optical illusions:


Two circles of identical size are placed next to each other. One is surrounded by large circles. The other is surrounded by small circles. The orange circles appear to be different sizes, but they are the same.

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The red bars appear to be different shades. It's the relation of the red bars to the background -- white or black -- that makes the shades appear to be different. All the red bars are the same shade.

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In this illusion, the horizontal lines appear to be bent. If you hold a ruler to each, they will run true along the edge of the ruler.

We cannot always trust what our eyes tell us. There's a lot that we see during the day that isn't necessarily true.

For instance the evening news, if we believed our eyes and ears, would convince us the world is a terrible place full of crime, deception, and disease.

However, everyone knows the media news gives a sharply distorted view of the life. It headlines only what is shocking. Very little attention is given to good people doing good things -- which is the reality of life for most of us.

Unfortunately illusions can be fatal. There is the story of a criminal, about 150 years ago, who was the victim of an experiment in which warm water was drizzled over his arm. He was told that he was bleeding to death, and he died because he believed the illusion.

So, how can we be not deceived by illusions? I find it helpful to measure relationships and events against what I understand to be God's nature -- good, caring, loving, fair. If something doesn't conform to God's nature, then it is not to be trusted to have the final word.

And if something isn't conforming to God's reality, I believe we have the authority of Christ to challenge and resist whatever is unlike good. And to expect change.

When friends and I missed our turn hiking down a mountain in Colorado this summer, we saw dismay, discouragement, danger, weariness facing us. But was it real or was it illusion?

Since we felt strongly it was not God's nature to let his children wander, we chose to identify those negatives as illusions. Instead we found gratitude for one small thing, and saw that as evidence of a good and merciful God leading us safely down the mountain. Which it was, and S/He did - gently, patiently, steadily.

Coming down that mountain

Other optical illusions:
http://listverse.com/miscellaneous/20-amazing-optical-illusions/