Looking, and seeing

The way the mind works is a mystery to me.

How many times have you looked at the sunset this week?  How many times have you seen it?

How many times have I looked at the reflections of the boats in the marina in the waterway?  How many times have I seen the liquid interplay of shapes and colors that result?  Tuesday nite, while making cheeseburgers on the grill, I had one of those wonderful, but sadly rare, instances where I saw those constantly evolving fluid shapes.

When looking turns into seeing, I can actually feel the mental gears shift, tho I have no words to describe it. 

I know that I spend way more time on the passive, looking side.  I wish that I could find a way to be like some people I know, who seemingly spend the majority of their lives on the seeing side.

As I was writing this, I was about to make a connection to right-brain / left-brain.  But I don't think this is necessarily valid.  Here's why:

This morning at work, I was examining an intermittent failure in a system that I have been trying to get to the root cause of since May 20.  Every day, for at least part of the day, I have spent time looking at this failure, from as many different directions as I can, hoping to get a clue as to its cause.  Now this is pure, unadulterated left-brain analytical thinking.

This morning, while looking at all the same elements that I have examined every morning for the past 3 weeks, I could feel a subtle shifting of the puzzle pieces occur.  Some pieces became more prominent and others became more dependent... and, most importantly, looking turned into seeing.  Everything fell into place, and the cause became not just distinguishable, but OBVIOUS.

Even tho I was heavily into computer systems analysis, did I just shift into a right-brain mode?

Did the shift happen last nite while I was cooking cheeseburgers? 

And by far the most important question:  How can I stay here, where I am today, in seeing mode?

Lots of questions.

No answers.

Looking, and seeing