Many years ago, I was a photography instructor for a community college’s noncredit program. I was a young dad, and most of my students were either young parents, too, or grandparents. I used what I perceived as a likely commonality among us all – small children – as a way to challenge the students and their approach to seeing the world that they wanted to learn how to photographs. It is, in fact, the seeing that matters more than the taking.

“Why do we always take photographs, including of our kids, from the ‘parental position,’” I asked, standing tall and looking down to dramatize the effect, while holding an invisible camera in my hand to demonstrate. “What does the world look like from their perspectives,” I challenged as I moved to a kneeling position and then shortened myself further by sitting back on my heels. Again, I reviewed the scene with an imaginary camera. “How big do things look from here? What is it like to look up to see almost everything? What do we see ‘down here’ that we couldn’t see standing up?”

The exercise was not just about creating images; it served as a challenge to see life differently. By changing our position, our perspective, we change not only what we see but also how we see.  

I am reminded of all this because of Gabby. She is an ten-week-old puppy that weighs in at just over a pound. She is learning how to be a living being, discovering the world of scents and textures, finding out how her body moves and functions, and exploring her world of floors, rugs, carpets and carpet grass. I am fascinated by it all. I am reminded of my mom telling me that my arrival “late” in her life (she was almost 40 when I was born) helped keep her young.

Playing with Gabby or watching her discover her world reminds me of the importance of utter joy, unending curiosity, and unbridled adventuresomeness. We should never outgrow that.

The timing is perfect. I turned 70 last weekend, though I feel decades younger. Gabby’s presence reminds me that it is important to never become numb or inured to all the fascinating, beautiful, intriguing, inspiring, unexplainable things in life, nor to the normal, explainable and mundane. Everything, and everyone for that matter, can be seen anew with fresh eyes, and that is an incredible view.