What Are You Looking At? What Are You Missing?

I am worried about us, my friends. I am worried about us losing our sight for anything that is not in the shape of an electronic devise.

I am in Hawaii, one of the most beautiful places I’ve had the privilege to visit in my life; a visual feast for the eyes. The ocean, vast and spanning the horizon in a dozen shades of blue, sail boats tipping in the wind, surfers waiting for the perfect wave to curl to shore, children digging in the sand, sun bathers, young and old, muscled and bronzed, flabby and pale, scatter the crescent beach of Waikiki; tall palms sway in the gentle breeze, massive banyan trees extending long slender tendrils from solid, gray branches down to the rich, dark earth.

Mint colored parrots swoop the air, while red-crested cardinals, orange-billed myna birds, zebra doves and white feral pigeons gather to pick and poke through thick blades of green grass. Misty rain clings to hilltops, double rainbows glisten in the sun. People of all shapes, sizes, colors and ethnicities in various stages of dress and undress lounge on beach mats, stroll the streets, gaze in shop windows, and sit on planters, lush with hibiscus bushes profuse in blossoms, eating bowls of frozen yogurt or mounds of Hawaiian “shave ice.”

And yet … large numbers of people – far, far too many – walk, sit on benches or the beach, heads down, eyes intent not on the wonders around them but glued to their smart phones. I wonder, too, if they hear the sound of sweet island music or the scent of tuberose in the air.

There is so much in life to be present to that cannot be fully experienced by looking at a screen.

Look up, people! Look out! Look around! Life – in all its magnificent dimensions – is waiting for you to see it … and, heaven forbid, ENGAGE!!

Blessings, Plynn