“It is a dire poverty indeed when a man is so malnourished and fatigued that he won’t stoop to pick up a penny. But if you cultivate a healthy poverty in simplicity, so that finding a penny will literally make your day, then, since the world is in fact planted in pennies, you have with your poverty bought a lifetime of days. It is that simple. What you see is what you get.”

Annie Dillard, “Seeing”

The Penny

Annie Dillard’s essay, “Seeing” is balm for the soul. The essay starts with a story. When she was a child, she would hide pennies around her Pittsburgh neighborhood as “gifts from the universe” for strangers. Part of the beauty in the penny gift is that it reminds us of the benevolence and goodness and oneness of the universe.

Oneness In The City

Dillard sees nature’s poetry. She sees precision in the science of a pond. She sees force in the wind of birds’ wings. She sees seasons crash with lightening. I live far from Dillard’s Tinker Creek. The challenge to see is less about a particular place and more an invitation to act. Seeing as leaving pennies behind to remind ourselves and others of the benevolence and goodness in the world. Seeing as paying attention to our world and our connection to it. Seeing as the responsibility to be awake in our lives.

Seeing In Chaos

We are asked to see in chaos right now. We are asked to see at a time when seeing is painful. We are asked to see at a time when seeing means change. We are asked to see when seeing means finding light in the darkest cracks and crevasses. We are asked to see when seeing means sorting through the cruelty to discover the sweetness that is all around. As Dillard suggests, what you see is what you get.

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