looking & seeing

Had a couple of incidents similar to my recent discovery of Sheep Sorrel 50 feet from the house. Two of the newly found wildflowers this year are Whorled Loosestrife and Bouncing Bet. I discovered the Loosestrife earlier in the summer, and the Bouncing Bet last week in Pittsford. In the last week, I have seen that wildflower in, oh, about 100 different places. The other day I saw a patch just down the road from here. I found some Loosestrife where Kahle Road meets Rte. 133, about 100 yards from where I sit here at the kitchen table.
It's common when viewing the natural world that when you finally see something, it seems to be everywhere. I just don't understand how there could be these flowers that I've been actively searching for over the past two years without seeing them, particularly when they now appear to be ubiquitous. Where have I been the last two years? I just don't understand.
There are a number of lessons that keep recurring here on the other side of the creek. One of them is that there is a wide gulf between looking and seeing. I wish it just pertained to the physical world, but I get the sinking feeling sometimes that the answers to "life's persistent questions" (to steal a phrase from Garrison Keillor) are hiding in plain sight. They are everywhere, just like the Bouncing Bet. What is it I need to do to go from looking mode to seeing mode? That, in itself, is one of life's persistent questions.