Hello Dear Ones!
This has been a fascinating week of revelations.
It all began while reading Kate Clayborn’s book Love Lettering. (A charming book about the complexities of relationships, all types of relationships. Well written, it has great characters & a well thought out and designed storyline.) Kate’s prime characters each have, as do we all, their own unique ways of perceiving and responding to their shared world. His passion is for numbers. He sees, thinks, defines, even eats and breathes numbers ~ their shape, use, complexity, simplicity, malleability. Her passion is for letters ~ the structure of them, colours, textures, fluidity, use. She sees them everywhere: in books, on billboards, store signs… Not the compilation of letters into words, but as a standalone piece of art when shaped into a uniqueness all on it’s own with a variance of font shape, design, thickness, even emotion. For example, have you ever read a book where the opening of each new chapter has the very first letter larger than the ones following it, often bolded with swirls & curlicues, some shaped like balloons perhaps interwoven with vines? That letter sets the stage for the emotions and the experience you’ll have as you read that particular chapter!
Anyway, to get back on topic here… all of this had me contemplating how I perceive my own world. After much thought but no resolve, I let the idea go. Then one night through the week a dream woke me up ~ the answer right there. My ways of perception are through curiosity, satisfied through the use of the camera lens and my own eyes, and presented back to me in the words of poetry. What a precious revelation! I think, eat, read, play, perceive everything as a poem – usually the potent brevity of a haiku style. And you’ll often find me tapping out syllable counts with my fingers. I have to keep a notebook & pen with me at all times!
Once I was comfortable with my own method of perceiving my world, I began to look around me. My husband and I talked about it, and he shared that he sees his world through patterns. My best friend sees her world through connections or links that flow one into another. I can imagine that Vincent van Gogh saw his world through colour. Leonardo da Vinci likely through function and structure.
Each one of us unique. All of us see our versions of this world from our own perspectives. With each perspective we have our own unique perceptions. And that makes for a rather complex world if we are all seeing things so very differently. There’s a tale about the perception wheel worth reading. My husband Mike tells it simply and well here.
So I bring my post back to you, Dear Reader. What are the ways you use to perceive your world? When and how do you find yourself happily obsessed with the world around you? Anything you’d care to share? Do drop a line to let me know. I’d be delighted to learn of your particular style!
In Light & Laughter
Marcia