I love this phrase!
Take a look-see.
It strikes me as a bit quirky and I’ve always thought, very Australian.
But a quick online search and it seems to be a borrowing from Chinese Pidgin English, with the first known usage in the 1860s!
I’m funny with language – I really love it – and some days a word or phrase will come into my mind and I’ll just think about it for a while.
The sound of it and the ‘feel’ of the word or phrase in your mouth as you say it.
Today ‘look-see’ was one of those.
It essentially means to take a quick look at something.
But as it was running around in my head, it really struck me that it shouldn’t mean that at all.
Instead, it should really mean: take a look at this, what do you see?
As in, really look at it. What do you really see when you look at it closely?
I aslo discovered (don’t ask me why!) that today is ‘Look for Circles Day‘ in the United States.
The idea (aimed at adults and children) is to look for circles in the world around us.
Fairly simple and a fun idea.
Notice what’s around you.
Look.
See.
I’m studying an elective at the moment which is all about connecting with nature.
One task I had to do was go outside and see how many love hearts I could find.
‘Look to the sky and the clouds, the bark on trees, petals of flowers, puddles of rain on the footpath, shapes of leaves…’
I’m a bit limited mobility-wise at the moment, so could only do a ‘look-see’ on and around our patio.
At first of course I didn’t see any.
But then I really began to look closely at things and suddenly there were hearts everywhere.
In the brackets on the walls of the patio, in the holes in leaves, in a combination of tree branches and leaves, in the bricks and pavers, flower petals, in the cabling of the dangling fairy lights and in a candle bracket.
But perhaps most surprisingly, all over the mosquito-coil holders – which we’ve had for years – and I’ve never noticed all the little cut-outs are hearts!
All it needed was for me to stop, take a real look… and see!
So whether you want to go and look for circles, or hearts (or anything else) try to make the time to really ‘take a look-see’!
Ann🙏