What are your life’s keywords?

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.” –Marcel Proust

Now that we’re global in ways we could never be before, we have countless new opportunities for discovery.

Today, our voyages may be virtual or physical ones. No longer do we plod over hills heavy with our worldly goods as we seek new views. Our searches are streamlined; we move with ease through landscape after landscape via Google Earth or Virgin Atlantic.

But while new scenery may be closer at hand, many of us continue to carry an enormous burden, one that weighs us down immeasurably more than a wagon train or a backpack ever could: our perspective.

When we see the world with the same-old, same-old, it doesn’t matter that we’re gazing upon a beach in Big Sur, the majesty of a castle in Edinburgh or the blue mist over Katoomba. World-weary eyes all too often miss life’s true treasures, stumbling over them in a frenzy to get to the fool’s gold. What does it matter where you are or what you’re looking at if you only seek what you sought before? What if your search never changes –like the eternal keywords of your life?

Our beliefs then become our burden. They heavy us up with tired ideas of what’s beautiful, what’s important, what’s real. Without new perspective, we’re destined to be trapped in our own list of stale keywords.

Our country needs a new list of keywords, too. But that’s a rant for another day.

My wish for you: May your eyes be refreshed . . . and your soul replenished.