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See New Hope With Tired Eyes
This year, I am grateful for the lesson I learned about focus. This lesson didn’t come from taking a class or watching “how-to” videos about focus. This lesson did not come from talking to a therapist about my need to focus because of distractions. This lesson came from Virginia’s COVID-19 face mask mandate.
Masks force me to focus on people’s eyes with a newfound intensity. I even feel people’s emotions in a new way since I focus on their eyes. I looked into the eyes of a woman at the grocery store as she frantically cleaned her shopping cart with a disinfectant wipe. I noticed her caution-filled eyes. I locked eyes with a stranger on the street. Our eyes said, “Hello,” and I recognized his friendly smile because of the eyes. I glanced into the eyes of a masked, crying toddler. I saw her frustration.
Oddly, I learned that I hear people better when I focus on their eyes. When I talk to masked cashiers in stores, I focus on their eyes to hear them. If my eyes stray away from theirs, I often respond with, “Huh?” “Can you repeat that?” or some variation of “I didn’t understand you.”
During the 2020 election season, I watched many campaign events and attended many campaign events online. When I watched these events, I noticed that I focused more on the people's eyes on the other side of the screen than before the mask mandate. One candidate…
