Finding what is missing

“What is truth? You can see where there is truth and where there isn’t, but I

seem to have lost my sight. I see nothing. You boldly settle all the important

questions, but tell me, my dear boy, isn’t it because you are young and the

questions of the world haven’t hurt you yet?” Anton Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard. From inwardoutward.org

A dear friend, Pan, who reads my blog, Daily Something, noticed a word I had not spelled correctly. I had been writing about how we see the world through different lenses and glasses. She kindly sent me a message asking me, “Did you mean to spell glases with only one s or did you do it to make a point to see if we might see it?” I loved her comment. She reminded me of so many lessons.

It helped me see and remember how something that looks so right can be so wrong. In writing, it more often is a missing letter, especially when there is another similar letter beside it. I have also talked about it in my life as a radiologist. It was the things that were missing such as a part of a bone that I would miss and not recognize its absence. It was easier to see the things that were added such as a tumor or extra blood vessels.

So many lessons. We need community to help us have better vision in our world and in our everyday and spiritual lives. I made such fewer mistakes in radiology when I took the time to share what I was looking at with others and asked their opinion. In radiology, that person was a partner or colleague. In writing we might call that person a copy editor. In learning to live life on life’s terms, we might call that person a therapist. In recovery we would call that person a sponsor. When we want to find out what might be missing in our spiritual life, we would call that person a spiritual friend or director.

Joanna joannaseibert.com