Image: A blue eye looks through a rectangular hole in paper. (pixabay)
“I see you.”
I recently saw someone type that on Facebook, in response to a post with a list of troubles. “I see you.”
It was a way of expressing attention without passing judgment, without offering advice, without asking questions. “I see you.”
“I see you” doesn’t fix anything. It doesn’t even try to fix anything. It just says, “You are not invisible. I am noticing.”
Sometimes we need action in response to our cries. But before there is action, there has to be awareness. There has to be seeing.
Seeing takes time. Seeing takes attention.
When I assume that I know what I’m seeing, I am assuming, not seeing.
When I move to fix something without truly seeing, I may fix the wrong thing.
When I move to judge something without truly seeing, I may misjudge.
When I refuse to see, I refuse the humanity in the other.
Blessed are You, Eternal our God, who gives us eyes that we may see.
