Above all else, I want to see

Vision has no cost to anyone. It can only bless.

There's a lot to be said for looking at things with new eyes, or looking at things through a different lens. Lots of the discord in the world, I believe, is because we all look at the same thing, but we only see that which we're able to perceive. A good example of this is optical illusions. We see what's drawn on the paper, but because of other variables: light, color, shading, the shape, angle or frequency of surrounding lines -- because of other variables, our perceptions differ.

So the thought for today is that "Above all else, I want to see." I want to see God's truth more clearly. That may mean that I'll see things people around me don't see; conversely, it may also mean that I'll have to let the people around me show me what they do see, and see if I can perceive what they see. But more importantly than any of that, seeing means that I'll have to allow the Holy Spirit to show me, and will have to continue preparing myself to receive the sight, vision, and direction of that Spirit. It's pretty simple, to me: Vision -- Divine, Godly Vision -- has to be a priority among my desires.

That's simply said; not quite so simply done. Sometimes immediate desires become short-term goals, and they interfere with vision. I had an example in mind, but have been distracted for the last half-hour or so.

I'm so excited for Rafa!!! FINALLY!!! Amit doesn't like him; was always a Federer fan; once Djokovic beat Federer on Amit's birthday, we knew it was all over. This is the first year since I've known Amit that we've missed going to the Open, either Semifinals or finals, but with the purchase of his house (and his desire to pay it off in under ten years), he is finally learning to cut expenses. So he changed the
Amex with perks to one without perks. One of the perks was cheap Open seats. We'd agreed on $250 as the max, which usually comes to nearly $300 once they add on taxes and fees. But we usually have 200-level seats.

This year the seats he found were the middle or end of the 300 level (which means in the sky), and they were $391 per! So we didn't go to the Open this year. Which is fine, b/c the men's finals on Sunday got rained out and we wouldn't have been able to have gone on Monday....

Am REALLY excited about the upcoming trip! It's already changed a bit: we're not flying RAJ, so we won't be flying into and out of Amman. So I'll only be going to Egypt and Israel/Palestine, not to Jordan. So I'll only get stamps from 2 countries on this trip instead of from 3 (and with the USPO suddenly charging SIXTY DOLLARS to add pages, maybe I need to re-think this desire to fill up the book...). But I'm really excited at the prospect of seeing the Pyramids and the Sphinx (and taking that famous picture where you are silhouetted with the Sphinx), of riding a camel again (though I'm entertaining the idea of hiking Sinai, if I can get up early enough. It's a mile and a half up, a three-hour hike, I'm told. It sounds exciting now; we'll see.), and seeing other parts of Israel besides just Palestine. I'm especially interested to see Tel Aviv and environs as compared to the Palestinian areas.

Above all else, I want to see....

I've just figured out how to put pictures in this thing, so let me post some favorites of the world as I've seen it...