Are you the kind of person to see more than the tangible nature of normal, everyday things? I’ll start out by admitting right away – I am! From things that go bump in the night, to a fluttering butterfly that saunters by and seems to linger near my shoulder just a little too long, I notice it all. I guess it helps that I am a very detail oriented person (not much gets past me – that’s good or bad, depending on your point of view).

Maybe it all started with an active imagination as a child. Growing up in rural, scenic Vermont, playtime always consisted of some type of made up game, its rules and dynamic privy only to us wide-eyed children who created it. Whether taming and riding a Palomino pony with a silky long mane and tail, or spending hours in a magical kingdom made of grass, milkweed and wildflowers galore, transformation of the natural world was quite easy. After all, weren’t we all a little more open to what could be, when we were children?

Although the busyness of life has somewhat dulled our senses and altered our perceptions, I am still curious. It doesn’t take much for me to see a shape in a cloud or a face on a tree. Perhaps “real” everyday life as most of us see it, is somewhat dull on the surface level. I’ve always adhered to the notion that there must be more. More that we cannot see, perceive or understand. I can’t help but feel that idea is indeed true every time I see the amazing photos relayed to us from the Hubble Telescope, which shows us glimpses, further and further out into the cosmos.

Since I won’t be visiting space anytime soon, I will continue to enjoy the heavens’ majesty through photographs and will instead decipher what is presented right in front of me. Most recently, would you believe some smiley faces in my cooking pan? That’s right, I said it! I told you not much gets past me, not even when the minutia of the day has worn me down and the commonplace task of making dinner is at hand…again. The smiling faces do not appear every time, in reality I’ve only seen them three times (so as a percentage that’s probably about 1% of the times I have cooked).

The first one came on a particularly tough day. It was a day I was greatly missing my son. It was one of those unforeseen times that hits you like a ton of bricks and pulls you down into the grips of grief. It was a place that felt so commonplace 2 ½ years ago when he died. As all of you know who have lost a loved one, those unexpected moments are inevitable and never get easier. The friendly gesture made by the olive oil in my frying pan had perfect timing. I saw it immediately and wasted no time capturing it with my camera. It was amazing, whimsical and just what I needed.

Call it coincidence, matrixing (perceiving random patterns as something else), a God-wink, a much needed hello from someone you miss, or a fabrication of a creative mind, but please, call it something. If it is hard for you to see past surface level living, I urge you to try. Trust me, it makes life much more interesting and it opens the world up; the world you thought you knew, is really so much more.