Squinting

Recently while driving in Williamsburg in a rain storm, I was focused so closely on where I was supposed to turn that I actually turned into the wrong lane. There I was heading into oncoming traffic. Such fun!!! NOT. Fortunately, I was able to move over the median and into my own lane without too much distress except to my poor passenger. The next day I drove the same route and tried to understand how I made such a mistake. As I looked at the entire intersection it seemed obvious but as I thought about how I was squinting and being so focused on an opening into which to turn the night before I saw how I missed it. I wasn't looking at the bigger area. I was too narrowly focused, hyper alert and squinting.

Mark Nepo talks about how in the alertness of a crisis, paying attention to too much detail we 'squint'narrowing our focus. In doing so we often miss the very thing we need to move through it. In other words we can cut out as much of what we need as what we fear.

As busy women, we squint a lot. We get so focused on what has to be done, needs to be done and the deadlines looming whether at work or at home, we often miss the bigger picture and cut out what we need most to move us through our busy lives. I don't even want to begin to count the number of times that I got so focused on details or time constraints that I steamrolled right over the very people I needed to make the project or the relationship a success. I wish I had lots of hours, days, months and even years back where I squinted through trying to get way too much accomplished and missed the bigger picture of where my 'heart's eye'needed to look. A wider focus would have helped.

Where are you squinting? What is your heart's eye calling you to see? How wide is your focus in the key areas of your life?