perspective

Sometimes we see things incorrectly.  We see them through the filter of our pain, our grief, or even our joy.  When times give us a proper perspective, we can turn around and look at them differently and see them in a whole new light.

I moved here 7 years ago.  I was not happy about the move.  I knew nobody, saw nothing in the land that I was happy about, and generally felt that I was being driven away from my home by business. The only bright spot in the grey of my picture was the fact that I was going to become good friends with someone that I deeply respected.

Time lends perspective.  I have friends. The terrain, though desert, blooms beautifully in the spring, and the mountains never fail to thrill me with their stark majesty.  I have come to realize that my vision problems might very well have gone undetected where I was, and my language skills have grown as well (thanks, Laurie and Brian for giving me confidence in myself!) And the bright spot?  I have had to realize that he is a colleague, and that's enough.

I think that it does us good to look backwards every once in a while and catch a glimpse of what has gone before. The mother that we didn't understand become much wiser with the perspective of age and children of our own.  The friends that we couldn't live without--what on earth did we ever see in them ? The truths that we thought were unchangeable and undeniable?  Turns out that some of them weren't even truths at all.

And that's another thing.  Are you afraid to look back?  Are you afraid to stare into the face of what you always knew, thinking that it's somehow sacrilege to question their veracity?  I'll tell you a secret--it's not afraid of you.  If it is true, it stands tall and proud and even more beautiful given the perspective of age.  And if it's not…well, sometimes things grow better when you remove them from the distortion of time and clarify their meaning with the perspective of wisdom and understanding.

So I challenge you--take a look around you and tell me what you see. The world is growing all around you.  Are you growing with it?