“Look into my eyes Nanny,” he said, cupping her face an inch or two from his. Three-year-old Fulton had just returned to our house after realizing that he had left without saying a proper goodbye by looking deeply into his Nanny’s eyes….and having her look deeply into his. This image from the past found me this morning as I reflected on the things of the present. The many things.

To look deeply into the eyes of another is an extreme act of intention and focus. It is intimate and intense – inquisitive and revelatory. If we surrender ourselves fully to such a moment, we see much and perhaps reveal even more. Such focus is incredibly powerful.

Yesterday morning, I found myself in the midst of the beautiful chaos of six of our grandchildren gathered in our family room. At one point, I found myself pinballed between a barrage of competing questions, requests, and declarations. Unable to respond quickly enough to any single request, I laughed to myself at the pandemonium and its scrambling effect on my brain. There was nothing to be done but to ride it out.

Chaos, even beautiful chaos, has a scattering effect. In diluting our attention, it lessens our ability to bring our powers of focus to bear upon any single thing. Our world feels chaotic right now. There are many things. From the chaos in world affairs to the chaos of end-of-year school schedules to the chaos in markets to the chaos on our roads – we are under assault by the many things seeking to blunt our ability to focus.

Such chaos is exhausting. Ours is an age of scattering: scattered attention spans, scattered resources, scattered desires, scattered time. Such scattering is squandering our effort, our attention, and our effectiveness. It will never serve it’s constituents well.

Considering the chaos of my grandchildren, order could only be returned by focusing on each child and addressing requests systematically. To order something is to bring it under control. The word meek stems from the Greek word praus which originally referred to the taming of a horse – the process of bringing its strength under control. It is a focusing of attributes, strengths, in unity and in a specific direction.

Meekness. Innocence. Focus. Hmm.

Returning to Fulton and the deep intimacy brought as Sally looked into his eyes, I wonder about power. The many things divide, scatter, distract. But focus, attention, intention, love, are all unifying forces. Such unity is powerful.

Considering all the chaos around us. Maybe the meek will inherit the Earth.

Lost in the Many Things: Innocence, Focus, and Power

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