The Direction of Intention

21.

Join me in inspiring truly powerful people. Each day I will add a new thought, story or idea to support your quest and mine.

He stood at the door and gave us each a yellow #2 pencil as we entered the room. This was my first day of college, my first day in art school: basic drawing. I’d yearned for this moment for years!

When we were assembled and quiet he held up his yellow #2 pencil and asked us what color it was. I, like the rest of my peers, thought, “What the hell! This is college! Why is he asking us such a stupid question?” One particularly disgruntled student toned, “Why, it is yellow.” We laughed.

He said, “Look again.”

Begrudgingly, we looked. “Yep, still yellow,” the disgruntled student mocked, rolling his eyes.

“Anyone else?” the professor asked. We were silent. “Look again,” he said, “really look.” Slowly we brought our pencils back to eye level and looked. “Look beyond what you think,” he said. “You only think it is yellow because you’ve stopped seeing. What color is it?”

My yellow #2 pencil transformed before my eyes; suddenly I saw shades of green and purple, undertones of  red and highlights of blue that hurt my eyes. It was alive with color! Guessing by the gasps of my classmates, they saw it, too.

The professor said, “That is the only thing I will teach you this semester. I will teach it to you again and again: how to see beyond what you think is there; how your thinking dulls the magnificent world that is right in front of you all of the time. If only you would choose to see it!

Filed under: Truly Powerful People |