“The eyes can look, but that’s not enough to truly see: Pliny wrote that we see with the mind, not with the eye. Saint-Exupéry said one sees clearly only with the heart. Looking is easy; seeing is an art.”

Have you ever thought about that?

All the most important things in life are invisible. Our values are invisible. Our ideas are invisible. Even our emotions can be invisible. You feel them within you. Sometimes you can express them, but they always begin from within — something the “other” can hardly see. Something invisible.

But be careful: Invisible doesn’t mean non-existent. It simply means that something isn’t visible to the naked eye. Not at first glance.

Something invisible can have as much impact as what’s visible. It can be just as intense. “Visible” or “invisible” are just labels. Just ways of framing things. It’s up to us to choose where to direct our attention. Even though we may sometimes be distracted, preoccupied, or mentally elsewhere.

It’s not easy to be truly present — intentionally present — in a world so rushed, constantly on the move. (But moving toward what? Toward where?) Still, it is possible.

And no, I won’t write the usual phrase, “you just have to want it.” Because that’s not enough. Wanting isn’t sufficient, as Ameya Gabriella Canovi wisely points out in her book “Dentro di me c’è un posto bellissimo” (Inside Me There’s a Beautiful Place) — a book I’ve mentioned before and highly recommend to anyone interested in psychology. Because understanding how we function — how the mind and body exist and interact — is the essential foundation for beginning to grasp how we make decisions.

Beyond willpower, there’s imagination. The power to imagine. The ability to picture what doesn’t yet exist, what could be, what deserves to exist — what someone, somewhere in the world, has already experienced in their own reality.

If it’s true that “you can’t walk in someone else’s shoes,” it’s also true that through the magic of imagination, we can envision another person’s experience. We can try to put ourselves in their place. We can engage in that deep and beautiful exercise of seeing through another’s eyes and cultivate the gift of empathy.

That’s how we become human beings in the fullest sense — rational beings who also feel, care, understand, show compassion and kindness. Toward others, and in turn, toward ourselves. Like a melody, like a dance, waiting to meet a voice — any voice — to find perfect harmony in its imperfection, every time it’s shared.

Perspective is everything. And thanks to imagination, you can also change your perspective — to understand, to grow, to see through someone else’s lens. And in doing so, to gain both direct and indirect experience. Of the other. And of yourself.

Plutarch once said, “What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.” I would add: forever. Beyond imperfection, beyond mistakes, beyond falling, beyond every decision and every perspective, we take steps — one after another — toward one of our best possible versions of ourselves. And this is how the invisible becomes visible.

What we conquer internally will reflect externally — through the choices we make that align with our needs and our values. Step by step, in every life, we move forward on a path now widely known as “lifelong learning.” A journey of continuous growth and discovery.

J.K. Rowling described this beautifully in her little book “Very Good Lives”, which came from her 2008 Harvard commencement speech.

She wished every graduate would follow their own path — not the one others expect, not the one defined by older voices, just because they’re older. She wished for mistakes — for through falling, we meet ourselves, we experiment, we question even more deeply, and we see ourselves with new, clearer eyes. She wished for friendships that are deep, real, and without judgment. She wished that life would be like a story — not necessarily long, but good.

And what matters most is this: day by day, we gather all the parts, every little piece of ourselves. To create a work of kintsugi — a harmony of unique resources, made precious by their cracks, because they are unrepeatable and carry within them an invisible treasure. An invisible that, with care and intention, can become a wondrous visible. For ourselves and for anyone we meet along our journey.

“Looking is easy; seeing is an art.” Beyond the invisible.