With Your Own Eyes

There comes a time, quiet, slow…
when the noise of the world no longer stirs you,
when the chase loses its thrill,
and you begin to wonder
what it really means
to be alive.

Not to exist.
Not to survive.
But to live.
Fully.
Fiercely.
With wonder burning behind your eyes.

Because peace…
real peace
isn’t handed down like a gift.
It’s carved,
soul-first,
from chaos.
From heartbreak and stillness,
from standing in the middle of life’s storm
and choosing to plant your feet anyway.

You will not find it in the noise,
nor in the glitter of what others call success.
Peace is not a destination
it is a reclamation.
It is the moment you stop asking the world
who you should be
and start remembering
who you already are.

To see the beauty of this world
is to choose to see it
with your own eyes.
Not through the lens of fear,
not from behind the filters of doubt,
but raw and awake.
The sunrise doesn’t care if you’re ready.
It rises anyway, bold, magnificent.
So must you.

Go climb the mountain.
Not to conquer it,
but to let it whisper its ancient truths into your bones.
Let the ocean remind you
that surrender can still be strength.
Breathe in the scent of rain on warm earth.
Let stars make you feel small
so you remember how vast your soul can be.

You were not born to rush,
to break,
to bury your light beneath routine.
You were born to witness.
To love.
To feel.
To heal.
To stand still long enough
that the world can speak to you again.

And when it does
when your heart is quiet enough to hear it
you will know:
peace was never far.
It lived within you,
waiting for the moment
you opened your eyes
and chose to truly see.

🌅 About This Poem

“With Your Own Eyes” unfolds as a quiet meditation on the reclamation of peace—not as a gift found, but as a self‑forged presence regained. Written by Gregory Harshfield and published by The Coconut Muse, the poem resides in a broad seasonal conversation on healing by nature and intentional stillness The Coconut Muse The Coconut Muse. It follows, thematically and chronologically, pieces like Everything I Lost, I Found by the Sea and Whispers in the Whelk Shell, creating a portrait of inner restoration through landscape and mindset The Coconut Muse The Coconut Muse.

At its heart, the poem invites readers to pause and reconnect—to challenge the cultural impulse to chase noise, status, speed, and instead to confront life’s totality “raw and awake.” Its imagery of storm, sunrise, mountains, and oceans serves not as backdrop but as catalysts for spiritual attunement. Where other poems on the site explore shells, sand, and the tactile elements of shorelines, “With Your Own Eyes” zeroes in on seeing as a conscious act and peace as an interior reclamation The Coconut Muse The Coconut Muse.

🎭 Structural & Thematic Notes

Tone & Opening: The poem begins in hushed reflection—“quiet, slow…”—establishing introspection from the first line. The tone sets itself apart from urgent or optimistic beginnings, choosing slow awareness instead.
Philosophical Core: It contrasts mere survival with living fully, arguing that real peace is “carved, soul‑first, from chaos.” This frames healing as active and intentional.
Imagery as Teachers: The poem repeatedly returns to natural metaphors: sunrise, mountain, ocean, rain, stars—each used not to awe externally but to anchor inner recognition. It asks the reader to climb, breathe, feel, and then see—with open, unfiltered eyes.
Refrain of Self-Realization: Phrases like “to remember who you already are” emphasize rediscovery, echoing themes in Where the Quiet Lives about reclaiming joy in small fragments of everyday grace The Coconut Muse The Coconut Muse.
Call to Action as Witness: The poem closes with the conviction that peace lives “within you, waiting for the moment you… chose to truly see.” The act of seeing becomes the final, liberating gesture.

📝 Expanded Reflection & Interpretive Layer

1. A Poetic Invitation to Awake
At its essence, the poem is a call to awaken—both to beauty and to self. Unlike inspirational slogans that command positivity, it acknowledges life’s storms and heartbreak, inviting the reader to stand still amid chaos and claim peace as a personal act of courage.

2. Healing Through Stillness
This poem proposes that stillness is not passive—it’s reclamation. Just as in Where the Quiet Lives, where stillness is a sanctuary and peace is built over time, here the stillness lies at the center of self‑recognition The Coconut Muse The Coconut Muse.

3. Natural Worlds as Mirrors of the Soul
The metaphors move beyond surface imagery. Climbing mountains or listening to rain becomes symbolic of internal trust and surrender. To see with your own eyes is to see life unmediated, without filters, fear, or doubt.

4. The Alchemy of Peace
By inviting the ocean, mountain, sunrise, rain into conversation with the self, the poem envisions peace as elemental alchemy—transforming turmoil into clarity, grief into presence.

5. Universality in Presence
The ending—“you opened your eyes and chose to truly see”—is not just a personal turning point, but an invitation to readers. As a universal gesture, it acknowledges that peace is available once we accept the still, raw truth of our being.

✍️ Additional Content Suggestion: Author’s Voice & Context

Gregory Harshfield’s work often weaves experiential detail with spiritual metaphor. While With Your Own Eyes does not mention specific surroundings, its place in The Coconut Muse’s poetry series situates it in a coastal retreat setting—likely somewhere salt‑stung and light‑filled. Insight into a personal moment—such as a sunrise watched alone on a beach, or a mountain peak climbed slowly after loss—would extend context. For example:

“This poem was written during a slow dawn walk on the Outer Banks. As I watched the sun rise over churning tides, I felt compelled to name the peace I’d forsaken during years of chasing storms.”

Including such background would deepen the emotional core and tether the poem’s abstract truths to lived memory.

📚 Reader Engagement Prompts

To further extend the piece and enrich engagement—especially if hosted on a blog—embedding some reflective questions or prompts after the poem can foster connection:

Have you ever felt the difference between merely surviving and truly living?
What natural spaces or moments help you reconnect with your own core?
When quieted, what does your heart remember you were meant to be?

🧠 Why This Expansion Works

Adds interpretive framework: Helps readers understand the poem’s journey, deeper layers, and its canon within the author’s broader set of reflections.
Clarifies context: Situates the poem within nature‑based themes on The Coconut Muse.
Invites reader reflection: Commands attention and emotional exchange, extending life beyond words.