Look the Other Way

When I become entrenched in my ways and as a result become 'stuck' emotionally and spiritually, a trusted voice whispers, "look the other way." This is not the call to ignore what's going on and to escape engagement with reality. Rather it is the invitation to change perspective and expand my small thinking.

At my workplace I often end my lock-up shift by moving 20 feet away, then turning and giving one last look before going home. I am intentionally checking my mental list to affirm I have turned off all sewing machines, flipped out display case lights, completed end of day financial readouts, locked what should be locked and set all things right for whichever co-worker opens the next morning. But in that 20 foot viewing space I also raise my awareness to what customers see as they approach that space. Looking IN instead of OUT becomes a wake up call of sorts. A nudge to change the place that frames my daily activities, to freshen the picture.

President Barack Obama's inauguration provided a powerful recent reminder to 'look the other way.' Cameras pulled back to the Washington Monument, pulled slow motion focus over the multitudes present to participate in history, and slowly came to rest on the singular podium standing like a toothpick in a snowstorm. I attempted to project myself standing at that podium looking out at those million plus attendant faces while imagining the many millions more viewing through TV screens. All those expectant, demanding, judging faces. I know what it feels like to be among the many looking at the one. But what must it be like being the ONE looking out at the MANY? Humbling? Powerful?

As a teen I once asked an influential pastor in my church camp "is it your power that makes you humble, or your humility that makes you powerful?" He was as stunned by the question that came THROUGH me, not from me, as I was by the words that left my mouth. ("Where did THAT come from", I thought.) We both stood in silence, the unanswered question reverberating somewhere inside each of us. I ask that same question about Albert Schweitzer, Maya Angelou, Abraham Lincoln and other influences in my life. At what point does humility transcend into power or power into humility? Those who integrate them equally are world changing, life enhancing, positive influences for me.

With the Golden Globes and Oscars season approaching, I find a multitude of occasions to 'look the other way.' What is it like to be the actor projecting into the character, projecting into the story, projecting into the audience of expectant, demanding, judging faces. I have a small sense of that everyday, as I play my roles of mother, grandmother, sister, niece, neighbor, co-worker, senior citizen, wisdom seeker, spiritual searcher sometimes simultaneously.

When a woman came into my workplace recently with a full grown, trimmed black moustache,I was at first stopped cold by the initial shock of something so out of the ordinary. As she spoke in her fully female voice and reflected a kind, thoughtful demeanor, I found myself not looking 'at' her but turning and looking 'with' her at the purchase she came to make. 'Looking the other way', together, took away the feeling of separation of how we were different. Looking in the same direction bonded our two beings into a gentle and productive result. I thank the whisper that guided that moment.

"If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always gotten." I don't know the origin of the quote but it serves as a guiding light for me when I get bogged down in the same old, same old. 'Looking the other way' is my activation mantra to discovering new paths that serve my journey toward wholeness.

Where are you called to 'look the other way'?