For Friday, May 3: Don't just look, SEE.

I wonder how many people I've looked at all my life and never seen. John Steinbeck

We can look at someone and not see them.  We can look straight at someone and see right through them.  I'm guilty of doing this.  I'm guilty of looking right through someone.  And guess what?  They know it, they can sense it.  And guess what else?  It communicates to that person that I don't think they have value or that they are worth really seeing.  Sometimes it is hard to really look at someone.  Sometimes their pain - internal and/or external - is hard to really see.  So we, okay I at least, look at them but blind my eyes to really seeing them.  If I see them then I have a responsibility to care, be involved.  And that can be really tough.  That's going to require time, energy, patience, sacrifice, and what else?  It's tough.  But to really see someone, to really look at them and all their pain is the better thing to do than to look through them.  To really see someone and acknowledge their value as a human is the better thing to do, the right thing to do, the courageous thing to do.  It's the best thing for them and it's the best thing for me, for *you*, to.