Blind Spots
As we move through our days, walking along familiar streets, going down familiar hallways, sitting in familiar rooms, we see mostly what we have seen before. The house with the odd paint job, the weirdly twisted tree, and our neighbor’s barking dog are landmarks and become all that we notice. It happens to all of us. But have you thought to ask yourself what you are not seeing? If, in a particular place, you always look to your left, what is on the right? Where you are habituated to look down, what are you missing by not looking up?
In nature, the areas that animals don’t see are the places where predators hide so they can ambush unsuspecting prey. In our modern life, the places on roadways where motorists don’t look are the places the highway patrol parks to catch speeding cars. These days, while most of us are unlikely to fall prey to large predators, and speeding tickets may be relatively minor concerns, we can use these ideas to realize the blind spots in our relationships with our family, our friends, or even ourselves. What is the impact on our health and the well-being of the Earth when so much goes unnoticed by so many? To see the unseen and know the unknown, to heal and be healed, we must show up for our own lives, already in progress. With a gentle, curious presence we can live in this moment. Only then can we begin to lift the veil of the unconscious mind and bring awareness to the shadows.
Some years ago, two of us took a group of college students on an overnight scientific field trip to the Granite Mountains of the Eastern Mojave Desert in California. After many hours of long, hot work, we gave the students a break to take a swim at a little spring in a sheltered canyon a few hundred yards up a path from where we were camping. Before the students headed up the trail, I told them that there WOULD be rattlesnakes at the water’s edge—so be careful. After I finished putting equipment away, I headed up the trail to see how everyone was faring. As I got closer, I could hear the students splashing and playing in the water, and I was confused. Why had I not heard any sounds of consternation as the students discovered one of the resident rattlesnakes?
When I entered the little canyon, I called out to ask everyone if they had found the snakes. The students assured me that they had checked everywhere, and there weren’t any. Was it actually possible that on a hot day in early summer, in the desert, there weren’t any of my favorite ambush predators? The beautiful and sometimes dangerous rattlers waiting to catch some unaware mouse foraging by the water hole? I knew the answer. Standing very still I scanned the cliff base, determined to find one of my snake friends. And sure enough, just there, not three feet from the water’s edge, tucked in at the base of the cliff, was a whopper! This large fellow was tightly coiled, just watching (I imagined in amusement) the students in their ignorant bliss. I also noticed, with a bit of alarm, that there were human footprints in the mud less than two feet from the snake, between him and the water.
The students and I all learned important lessons from our snake teacher that day. For the students, there was a newfound respect that just because you don’t see something, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. I learned that we all have blind spots, places of little or no awareness, and while someone may point out something to us, we must do our own looking. Exploring blind spots is an ongoing practice that requires time and focused attention.
Try: Take a walk down a forested path, a hiking trail, or even on the sidewalk in front of your home! Move at your usual pace for a few minutes, noticing what draws your attention. What do you see, hear, smell? If you have walked this path before, are these things familiar to you?
After a time, turn around and walk back the way you came. This time move slower than usual and set an intention to see things you hadn’t noticed before. Look up or down, closer or farther away. Are there places along the trail you couldn’t see before because of some landscape feature that obstructed your view? Do you see obvious things that you missed on the walk in? Could this simply be because your focus was elsewhere? If you are drawn to familiar objects, try intentionally looking in another direction or to something less familiar. These new observations may be pointing out some of your blind spots.
Now, take a moment to recall a time in your life when you experienced strong emotions or reactivity to some unfolding of events. Recall the experience as if you are watching a movie. Who are the characters? What’s the storyline? What was happening, and how did you feel? Was this pleasant or unpleasant for you? Now, as before, imagine doing this “walk” again with the intention to slow down and see with fresh eyes what is there to be seen. Can you sense another perspective on what happened? If you were a different character or an outside observer of this event, how might you have felt different? As best you can, be gentle with yourself and all the characters in this story. The goal is simply to look for and into our blind spots, building our capacity to grow and be present.