This is something we teach.

• To the child who doesn’t listen: “Look at my face while I’m talking.”
• To the student struggling with fractions: “Look. It’s just like cutting up a pizza pie.”
• To your fence-building helpers: “This is a post-hole digger. You hold it like this, punch it down, and lift out the dirt. Now you try it.”

Often adults think they already know this.

• Then they have kids: “Mommy, watch me.” “Daddy, did you see what I did? Daddy, did you see?
• Filling out a form online: “Try again. You need to fill out all of the blank spaces.”
• The quiet employee: “I’m here on time every day, get all my work done, and take up the slack when others are behind. But, nobody notices.”
• Relationships: “She didn’t even notice that I shaved my mustache off two days ago.”

I hate it when I come home, and people are so mesmerized by their phones or the television, that they don’t return my greeting. I don’t even like it if they mumble an obligatory “hello” but never look up and make eye contact.

I don’t like to stand in front of the cash register and not be acknowledged with even a glance by the person who is collecting the money.

And yet, this morning, I kept looking at the game I was playing on my phone when my husband started talking to me. Then I realized I was only giving him half my attention, if that! We were just waking up, and my husband of 50+ years wanted to start the day with conversation, my love language. And I kept playing my game, saying, “Um hmm.”

Oops. I put my phone down, looked at him, and paid attention to what he had to stay to start the day. After all, we love each other.

Is there someone in your  life who hopes, wishes, and desires that you:
“See Me with Your Eyes.”