Annie Dillard, Seeing
Pg. 693

“The world is fairly studded and strewed with pennies cast broadside from a generous hand. But -and this is the point- who gets excited by a mere penny? ... It is poverty indeed when a man is so malnourished and fatigue that he wont stop to pick up a penny. But if you cultivate a healthy poverty and simplicity, so that finding a penny will literally make your day, than since the world is in fact planted with pennies, you have with your poverty bought lifetime of days. It is that simple. What you see is what you get.

When Annie is talking about is how the world has come to stop appreciating the little things in life such as pennies. As generations past money has become less valuable, there were days where saving pennies was a gift because you could buy “penny candy” and if you collected enough it would turn into bigger amounts of money. Now the penny to people is worthless, people now get rid of small change for it is useless to them. Items are more expensive and pennies have no meaning anymore. She is saying that the penny has lost its value to people, but the penny really hasn’t lost its value at all.

Pg. 694

“It’s all a matter of keeping my eyes open. Nature is like one of those line drawings of a tree that are puzzles for children: Can you find hidden in the leaves a duck, a house, a boy, a bucket, a zebra, and a boot?”

Nature has a way of changing, unlike the broad statement of the world nature has ways to manipulate what it looks like to the surrounding areas. When you look at something in nature such as a tree you can either see a tree as it stands or if you look closer you can make out different things, which make it unique. Nature is able to hide some of its interesting beauties like Annie was saying about with the puzzles of making something seem as it is but having another item hidden. Being able to find these items takes concentration and patients to look that long. When finding hidden items you are in the moment and taking everything one-step at a time to take in what is around you and what you are looking at. By putting yourself in the moment it helps to find those unique hidden figures.