Awake to What's Important

The Ocean at Prouts Neck, Maine

I swore as soon as I saw this picture in the Smithsonian that it was Monhegan Island, Maine.  It only said "Maine Cliffs" without a location. These cliffs are so famous and painted so frequently that I figured it just had to be Monhegan. Then, and only later, did I see that it was an original Winslow Homer!  I overlooked the painter completely.

How often does my familiarity lead me to assumptions which overlook what is most important? 

TS Eliot warned that most of us walk through life asleep. He had good company in Jesus, Buddha, and even Voltaire.  However, and this is key--even if we are truly awake to the moment, what are we to focus on, look for?  I saw the picture, I was taken to a place in my imagination--"Why, I have been there, I said!"  And perhaps I had.  The artist captured the feel, the raw power, and the spirit of the ocean slamming the cliffs--by painting the particular detail (Prout's Neck, ME?) he caught the universal.  Could it be that the artist in us can awake to the detail in the particular and glimpse something of the universal?    William Blake certainly  saw this when he wrote:

To see a world in a grain of sand,

And a heaven in a wild flower,

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,

And eternity in an hour.

                                          Auguries of Innocence