The World Behind the Glass

I was sitting on the floor this morning, trying to fold laundry, when I caught my nephew staring at a tablet. He was completely still. His mouth was slightly open, and his eyes were wide, reflecting a blue light that seemed to pull him entirely out of the room. I called his name twice before he even blinked. It made me wonder about the places we go when we are just sitting in a chair. We think of childhood as a time of running and noise, but so much of it is actually this—a quiet, intense hunger to understand something just out of reach. We are all looking for a window into a world that feels bigger than our own living rooms. Sometimes, I think we never really grow out of that. We just trade the cartoons for spreadsheets or maps, still searching for that same spark of discovery in the glow of a screen. What is it that pulls you in so deeply that the rest of the world just fades away?

Zara Otaifah has captured this exact feeling of total immersion in her image titled Through Her Eyes. It is a beautiful reminder of how much life happens in the quietest moments of focus. Does this image remind you of someone you know?