Blurred Vision 

Sometimes when you wake up first thing in the morning and you’re a little tired everything is just starting to get moving, and you head towards the bathroom for that morning shower … and you can’t see that well. 

If you haven’t had a really good night’s sleep and your body’s telling you don’t need to get up quite so early for work today, but you do so anyway. You find yourself with a little bit of blurry vision. Your eyes aren’t quite open yet … well they don’t want to be, … there are some bags under your eyes and you find it necessary to splash some water on your face and tell yourself wake up it’s time to get up.

This blurry vision dissipates when we finally open our eyes and start to see once more. This is not just a physical thing. (Well, it is I guess in relation to our eyes; and being a bit of a sleepy head in the morning.) But there’s another type of blurred vision. One which isn’t so easily fixed with a splash of cold water, the shower, and some powerful coffee to jolt the body and the mind into action.

The blurred vision I’m talking about now is the blurred vision of the mind. 

We all have a certain level of sensitivity, empathy, and compassion. And frequently the more sensitive we become to picking up the vibes going on around us, the more easily we become subjects to holding those vibes within us. Actually, not just holding them, but transmitting them. Someone says something to you that offends you, which seems like it’s wrong. You catalog this, in your mind and it is remembered. You may or may not respond. Later in the day, the same thing occurs, perhaps in a different period, a report on the news, or trouble from a personal situation. They start to pile up. 

This becomes blurred vision, from a spiritual perspective. It can accumulate if you don’t do something to release it. 

I always admired boxers; who seem to be able to take as much as they can put out. From a spiritual perspective, we can take a lot of blows, but sometimes the effect of them just accumulates, until eventually, you don’t seem to be able to do anything about it. Then, our vision, our spiritual vision becomes blurred, and we start to lash out, perhaps even at the wrong person, just the last person who broke through the barrier we had built up. Now the weight was too much. We snap. 

And yet, others seem to be able to take so much more. Why is that? Is it because those first few times when the vision seemed blurred they immediately dealt with whatever was causing us to not see straight? Maybe the thing that was activating us was not as serious to them as we thought it should be? It was a nothingburger to them, but upsetting to us. This blurred vision may need the freshwater of the morning, some eye drops, or just a good night’s sleep. Whatever is causing our reservoir of peace to be disturbed should be attended to, as it rarely gets better. 

A listening ear, some time for reflection, a dose of gratitude for the other things in our lives, a glimpse of a loved one, even a joke about whatever is bothering us can bring us back to a clearer vision. Spiritual vision. 

Centering prayer, quiet contemplative prayer is one way of dealing with this. Engaging in a close encounter conversation with the guy upstairs, the divine within, can make things better. And provide the needed ointment to heal the wounds of everyday life. What is your solution when your spiritual vision becomes blurred? Something to consider for the week.  

Blurred by Michael Cunningham 

I can see you

I can see you

Hiding that thing you want from me

That desire to tell me what to think

What to say

What you do I

I can see you

I can see you

A member of the clan that’s not me

But an enemy in disguise

Pretending to know me by kind words

Hiding in sheep’s clothing

I can see you

I can see you

Your message is clear to me

You have taken God and painted him in your own colors

Without asking me first

What colors I like

I can see you

I can see you

The mask and show of yourself

The projection to the world

Of what you are trying to do

Of who you are trying to influence 

I can see you

I can see you

But now you are infecting me

With your desire to control

So my desire is to reject

You and all your wares

I can see you,

But I can’t see me clearly anymore 

Because I see you 

Reflection, Image and Poem copyright 2024 by Michael Cunningham OFS