Take a Look Around

When I was in college one of my professors gave a brief assignment which changed my thinking forever.  She asked us to write two paragraphs about the same subject.  Seems simple enough right?  But here's the twist.  The two paragraphs had to be from two opposite perspectives.  As the day of the assignment approached I was struggling to decide what to write about.  Finally, in frustration, I lay down on my living room floor and stared up at the ceiling...and that's when it all started to come together.  I saw the dirt stained ceiling, the cracks in its aging plaster.  I felt the worn carpet underneath me and cringed.  I started to take in the ugliness and oldness of the room, and there was my first paragraph, but then I had the task of decidedly switching perspectives.  I lay down again, determined to see the good in this room, and sure enough, I saw it.  The high cathedral ceiling brought an openness to the room, and the large front window allowed the warm sunlight to stream in and brighten the room.  Covering the entirety of one wall was a mural of a mountainside, a conversation piece, but one which has always brought me joy upon seeing it.   It wasn't long before the second paragraph was written.  What was paramount about this assignment though was not the subject itself, a room.  No, this assignment awakened me to a thought much deeper and more profound.  In any situation there is good in bad.  In any person, there is good and bad.  Why then do we so often choose to focus on the bad?  What if we purposefully changed our perspectives?  What good things would we start to see around us in our jobs, our coworkers, our spouses, our relatives, our society?  How would your life benefit from a perspective shift?  Maybe it's time for you to take a moment to lay on the living room carpet of your life and get a new perspective.  Try it this week and see if it doesn't bring you more joy and excitement about life.  Sometimes we don't need to change our circumstances, we only need to change how we see them.

~K.W.