Recently on a YWAM missions trip, the speaker made us perform an experiment, an outlandishly uncomfortable experiment. In order to accustomize us fully to the presence of those around us, we were asked to make eye contact, with either a stranger or someone we knew, for one full minute. One full minute.

For some this is likely not a big deal. Gazing unflinchingly into the eyes of complete strangers, or worse yet, complete friends (of the same gender no less) comes as easily to them as, indeed, any easy thing comes to any easygoing person. Not so me. This was exquisite torture. Such an intimate Meeting with the Other, is gripping, even frightful.

At any rate, the minute came and went much as I expected. There was grand discomfort, but in the end, 'Tim' and I came away recognising the humanity in each other a little bit better. We did not exchange e-mails, but we did recognize each other subsequently throughout the trip, to our mutual benefit, I might add.

Fast forward two months. The trip is done, but I am still thinking about eyes, eye contact and what it means. I figure it's important. I realize I don't do it enough. So I gave myself a task: In my head, while talking to a person, I would assign their eyes a colour with one descriptive adjective. Light Hazel. Dark brown. Ink black.

This worked for a while, but turned out to be too easy and, to be honest, a little lazy. I upped it to two adjectives. Medium bright blue. Light opaque green. Fire engine red. This, too, did nopt do the job. Soon I had to leave colours and just go to similes and metaphors. Poetry basically. In order to accurately describe the colour of the average persons eyes, I have had to dig pretty deep. In the past five days I have seen 'average' people with eyes that are, basically, undescribably beautiful.

In fact, the harder I look at a persons eyes, the less I find myself equipped to adequately describe them.

Of course, this has made for awkward moments. Like when I discovered that my friend -we'll call him Mel- was possessed of the most tremendous shade of gunmetal grey eyes that I have ever seen, deep deep granite, layer upon layer... Does one say something? I opted not to. Maybe, such discoveries are best left unsaid, or at least, saved for the right moment. It has been 'eye opening' to see how each of us is gifted with unique and beautiful jewels, jewels that beggar description. At least for me.

So much then, for the Looking At of eyes. The Looking Into of eyes is another matter altogether, for a different post, and a different night.