Wednesday, August 4, 2010

THE POWER OF THE EYE - ELEMENTS OF SELF



~ The eye speaks with an eloquence and truthfulness surpassing speech.
It is the window out of which the winged thoughts often fly unwittingly.
It is the tiny magic mirror on whose crystal surface
the moods of feeling fitfully play,
like the sunlight and shadow on a still stream. ~
The focus this week for "Elements Of Self", hosted by Juliana at Shakti Mama is the eyes. Eyes fascinate me, especially it they are accompanied by laugh lines. I am drawn to them more than than any other facial feature...which is why most of the photos I take are close ups focusing on the eyes. They are truly windows of the soul...often reflecting thoughts and feelings ...adapt communicators when words are not needed. Being verbally shy and quiet by nature, I let my my eyes do most of my talking for me. A firm believer in "Loose lips sink ships" I tend to hold back my words when angry or upset...after all, words once released can't be reclaimed...but my eyes give me away all the time.

My girls, now grown and making their own way in the world, were always well behaved...most of the time...well... at least in comparison to horror stories told by other parents at the time, and it seems now that I can't remember ever having to "get after" them much. They would tell you that I didn't have to...that one look from me...with my "I'm only going to tell you once" eye, was enough to keep them in line.

I had The Power!

We were able to skip over the adolescent and teen years relatively unscathed due partly to of the "power" of the eye. They hated to see the look of disappointment in my eyes and would do the best they could to avoid it. They often joke about it now, laugh over times past and teasingly remind me that they had no choice but to behave because they would "wither" under my disappointed gaze if they didn't.

I still had The Power!

The hubby has become an experienced reader of my eyes too, although he has come to it much more slowly than the girls...probably because he is a man, and like most men is a slow learner when it comes to the wants and needs of women. But he can see when I am not feeling well or when something is bothering me. He has learned by reading my eyes when I need some extra love and attention or when I need some space and he is slowly beginning to learn when it is best to just shut up. Being the talker in the family, he really struggles with this one.

Yup, still got it...The Power!

Mostly, my eyes are smiling eyes ...sparkling blue jewels encased in a setting of deep laugh lines and it is when I am happy that you see the real power of my eyes.


I have been fooling around with the camera a lot lately since Juliana started this self portrait challenge, deleting many, many pictures before finally settling on the above close up of my eye, and the next one that I photo shopped to make look old.

I chose this one because I was struck by just how little my eyes have change from when I was the child seen in the next photo, taken when I was in grade three.


And here is a picture of one happy mother of the bride
where my eyes are indeed
...sparkling!



12 comments:

  1. I love the last photo--so beautiful!

    I think I need to learn and perfect the "I'm only going to tell you once" eye. HA!

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  2. Love all the portraits of you! Mother of the bride is my favourite I think - you look so happy.
    I agree that eyes are the windows of the soul. I always look at eyes!

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  3. Oh, that last photo is a treasure! Sparkly indeed. And what an interesting/provocative idea to include the picture of you as a child -- nice.

    Blessings,
    Stacy

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  4. You have warm and inviting eyes!
    Thanks for sharing your words of wisdom on my blog. Our eyes truly are windows.

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  5. Whoa! You are gorgeous Marisa. And your eyes DO sparkle.

    I have never mastered "the eye". Not ever. So I really admire the women who have. I have the tone of voice down pat, but I'm still working on "the eye".

    Cheers, jj

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  6. Oh, this is beautiful! You are so right -- your eyes in the one photo look identical to your eyes in the very young photo! I never really thought about that ... how eyes change so little -- if at all -- over the years. In fact, I think this is how we recognize those we haven't seen in a long, long time.

    So wonderful that you got such a close-up of your eye ... I wish I could have done this, but I haven't figured out how to do that with my camera yet. I think I need a shorter lens. I love the second photograph ... it has a very timeless and graceful quality.

    Thank you for participating, and I'm so glad you were finally able to post comments! :)

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  7. your joy sines out in the last photo :-)

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  8. i LOVE this!! my mom also has The Power -- she could control us with The Look ....as we called it!

    oh the sparkle of joy -- it really is captured in that photo!

    beautiful photos!!

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  9. Beautiful pictures Marissa! Love to see how little your eyes have changed.

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  10. Oh, I love the picture where your eyes are 'sparkling'! And the one with the old look to it.

    Boy I would love to have that 'eye power'! lol. My two-year-old thinks it's funny when I try to convey seriousness with my eyes.

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  11. I absolutely love the last photo! So beautiful :)

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  12. I love the little photo of you. I notice often how you can identify the child who became the adult by their eyes. They never really seem to change.
    The last photo is so beautiful, so shining.

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