Those of you who’ve worn contacts will know exactly what I’m talking about.
The rest of you will have to imagine it.
After watching the Golden Globes at a tavern with friends, I returned home to work virtually with my web designer in Manila –– he is completely nocturnal so that dovetails perfectly with NYC life.
Around 1 am I took a break while waiting for a page revamp and nodded off watching a rerun of 30 Rock (IE, it seems I just can’t get enough Tina Fey.)
Anyway, waking up my eyes were dry and I rubbed them and then either lost my right contact lens … or else it moved somewhere under my eyelids.
And here’s the weird thing about that kind of experience: the lens are light enough that you really can’t tell if they are gone from your rubbing or if are still there but have moved into an awkward position. The problem is that by trying to find and remove them, you end up irritating your eye further.
In other words, trying to fix the problem only makes it worse.
(And since you no longer have your lens in, you technically can’t really see what you are doing in the first place.)
Although I love the Earl Wilson quote ––
“Snow and adolescence are the only problems that disappear if you ignore them long enough.”
–– as I explore more and more LOA work, I’m beginning to wonder if this truly true.
I can’t seem to solve certain problems –– like my maybe lost or maybe just gone rogue contact lens –– without poking them and making them worse (and therefore perpetually unsolvable and increasingly irritated)
All my late night internet research confirmed this: I’m just suppose to rest and either the lens will drift back into place … or it will become obvious it fell out during that first post-dozing-off rub.
That practice –– waiting for things to come back into Alignment without leaping into problem-solving mode –– is oddly perhaps my most challenging … but also the perfect metaphor for a better way of dealing with almost every other problem in my life I’m eager to pounce on and “solve.”
OK … Eyes Closed for a moment … meditating / napping / whatever … no more poking at the problem … Just Allowing everything to come back into place.
[Or else I’m heading straight to the Ophthalmologist]
[And yes, this is my actual eye –– pre-contact incident, of course.]
