Imagination and the Eye of the Beholder, Part 1

The imagination is like a lantern. It illuminates the inner landscapes of our life and helps us discover their secret archaeologies. When our eyes are graced with wonder, the world reveals its wonders to us. There are people who see only dullness in the world and that is because their eyes have already been dulled. So much depends on how we look at things. The quality of our looking determines what we come to see. Too often we squander the invitations extended to us because our looking has become repetitive and blind. The mystery and beauty is all around us but we never manage to see it. Similarly with the inner world: the imagination is the eye for the inner world. When the imagination awakens, the inner world illuminates. We begin to glimpse things no-one speaks about, that the outer world seems to ignore. When the inner world brightens, we discover a new confidence and a surer grounding in the world.    —John O'Donohue, Beauty: The Invisible Embrace

The Eye of the Beholder from the series Peacock Wisdom