I love to sit in our corner chair on the back porch. It’s relaxing, mostly quiet and beautiful on many mornings. One day, recently, I shifted onto a beanbag chair, which our son had dumped out from his room. Thought to myself: “Hey, it’s actually really nice and comfortable here.” And it’s kind of a cool perspective to chill here and read.
I had noticed the previous night’s rain puddles on the patio and thought nothing of it. Now, that I was sitting on ground level, I suddenly noticed that the same puddle was giving me cool reflection from a different perspective. Moving around a bit more from where I sat, I saw beautiful things.
THE POWER OF A PERSPECTIVE
This got me thinking of what a difference our perspective makes. Imagine this: you’re sitting in rush hour traffic and you’re bound to be there for an hour. At that moment, you have some an option about your attitude and approach to the situation. 1) You could think, “Man, I can’t believe I’m stuck here for an hour. What a waste!” 2) You could think, “Well, since I’m gonna be here for an hour, let me make some useful phone calls, listen to an audio book, etc.”
So often in life, we simply look at things from our point of view and judge things as we see them. “Oh, that’s just a puddle.” “Oh, she’s just like that.” “Oh, this is just another boring day at work.” But, if we take a moment to move and alter our perspective, we just might see things in a different light.
How many times do we judge a person by his or her appearance? I’ve done it way too many times. Sometimes a new acquaintance, that I least expected to learn something from, has turned out to be a profoundly wise and an insightful person that I learned A TON from.
How many times do we judge circumstances based on our perspective. “Man, I have to do a bunch of house chores today.” Wait a minute… you have a house? You have clothes, dishes and belongings to clean up? That’s a privilege. (See my other recent article, “I get to, not have to.”)
So, take this lesson from the puddle: Don’t ascend to look down on people. Descend and look up at them. What can you learn from them? Guaranteed, a lot.
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