Indescribable!
Familiarity breeds contempt – knowledge of or close association with someone or something leads to a loss of respect for them or it. We’ve all heard this idiom but have we ever actually applied it to our own lives? Similar to bible verses we’ve read and heard several times – we’ve all heard them, we’ve read them, we’ve had them explained to us, but have we sat down and attempted to decipher what they mean for us personally. How can we apply this idiom to our own lives?
EVERYTHING we experience in life serves to transform us – not just suffering and pain but what we read, what we’ve studied, where we work, where we live, who we befriend, where we travel, etc. All these things play an important part in our spiritual development and maturity. Unfortunately, many of us miss the opportunity to develop and mature spiritually because we are too busy to think deeply or listen intently. Sometimes I find myself reading something or thinking of something and then pushing it aside because I’m busy at that particular moment – I don’t have the few minutes I think it takes to really “get into it”. Unfortunately, I never get back to that reading or thought. In that moment of busy-ness I have lost the opportunity to grow, to learn, to transform. However, when I take the time to delve deeper, I feel enlightened, I learn new things about myself and my heart expands.
I recently began to think about the idiom familiarity breeds contempt when I moved to my new home. I remember driving up to meet with the realtor two weekends in a row and I was so excited to be driving through the mountains, seeing such natural beauty, driving up to the log cabin that would soon be my own and thinking to myself “wow!” but immediately something inside me said “when this place becomes familiar it will lose the wow factor for you.” An “aha” moment for sure and I vowed not to let that happen. I realized that was exactly what the idiom meant – when things are “new” – our cars, our homes, our relationships – we are so excited about the unfamiliar, yet once those things become familiar – we start to lose interest or we begin to take it all for granted. We begin to lose sight of what attracted us to all these things in the first place. So how do we turn this idiom on its face? We contemplate what the french writer Marcel Proust once said – the real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in seeing with new eyes. We must set an intention to re-focus our eyes and attention back to what attracted us in the first place, reminding ourselves that what is most necessary is a change of mind as opposed to a change of “scenery.” I catch myself sometimes walking up my driveway with the garbage can, not even paying much attention to the house I fell in love with two and a half years ago. It is then that I stop and close my eyes, take a deep breath and put myself back in the “wow” space. The same holds true for God’s creation. How many people walk around without taking notice of the trees that play an integral part in our survival or the beautiful varieties of birds and their morning songs or the awesome night sky. Have you ever put much thought into how your body works or how the universe operates like clockwork? Is it all too familiar? Do you just expect that everything will go according to plan?
As you know, I love to share songs that have depth of meaning. So here is one that helps keep me grounded, that helps me to constantly see familiar things with new eyes. I hope it does the same for you. Enjoy! God bless you!
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