Perception How strange to be walking along, enjoying the sights, the sounds, the company, then gradually realizing that I am not quite who I thought I was. I am not quite where I thought I was. I see the same things as before. I smell the same scents. I feel the same breeze. Familiar faces are still there. Nothing around me has really changed. I have changed. It was and always has been about 'perception'. Two people can look at the same painting and yet each will experience the painting in a different way, from a different mindset and frame of reference. That is how perception works, despite our common experience. There is much in common but the details of our experience are not the same. Following the art metaphor, ponder this: Imagine a gallery of fine art. It's full of representational paintings, that is to say, they contain images of things we recognize. There are paintings of ladies at picnics, jockeys on horses, a man riding a unicycle, a vase of flowers in a still life, etc. I may notice that one of the horses in the race has foamy sweat upon his withers. The man on the unicycle has bright red suspenders. You may or may not notice these same details. Based on your life experience up to that moment, you might notice an entirely different set of details. Now suppose I said to you, "Isn't that odd? That man on the unicycle has mostly black clothing except for the red suspenders. Wonder what the artist was trying to say there?" We may be off on a debate. I may have seen the sweat on the horse but you might have thought it was a paint dribble. Maybe it was. Who can say, besides the artist who created it? Furthermore, even if it was an accident that paint dibbled on the horse's neck, well, isn't that the accident that made the painting more realistic to me? I come from horse country. I know that horses really running full out will be lathered with sweat. Therefore, for me, it was an important aspect of the painting and the meaning of the scene, accident or not. So, I saw an artist's attention to detail and you saw an artist's mistake. Our perception is tinted by many aspects, all aspects of ourselves, which come from our prior experiences and receptiveness. I'll delve more into that later, but imagine applying this varying perception to more than paintings. Apply it to reality, time, space, energy, or the metaphysical. No wonder there is a world of differing opinions on most everything. You see what I'm getting at here. It's not 'what is there' so much as 'how you view it'. It's about Perception. So, what happens when my perception is jostled? What happens when something cosmic taps me on the shoulder and tells me to take another look at everything? I blink. I look again. I squint. I get a headache. Then... I really start looking. I awaken. I begin to realize that my view of everything is unique to me. I am the only 'me' there has ever been. I am the only 'me' that will ever exist. There's a lot of freedom implied in that and a lot of responsibility. I don't live in a vacuum. I have to function in this world, in this life, in my niche, but my perception of how all of that works... has changed. It may not be as easy or automatic as I'd like, now that I'm aware of some things that most people don't seem to notice. But hey, at least I'm not sleepwalking anymore. (Perception)

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