List 37 - Keeping it in perspective?

A couple of days ago I walked out my front door and I looked up and saw this . . .

Amazing, huh?  I love it when I look somewhere 'regular' and see something irregular - something spectacular, something unbelievable and extraordinary.  This scene struck me as EXTRAordinary.  As I headed out to walk Sadie (or for Sadie to walk me) I continued to ponder on the amazing-ness and beauty that surrounds us when we take a moment to look.  I uttered an audible thank you to Sadie for forcing me out, where I could look up and be amazed at God's handiwork, even for a split second.  

This image is SOOTC (straight out of the camera).  These are the colors that were there.  The clouds were in that fun formation.  The leaves were that gold and the sky was that blue.  Wow, I thought.  

Then I began to think about how my feelings contribute to what I see.  And then I did what I'm good at . . . I took it all over the place and started having some fun.  What would I see if I looked up on a day that I was worried or a day when I was sad.  What would it look like if I was feeling relieved, light and airy?  What would I see when I'm excited, anticipating something wonderful?  

So that, my friends, had to be the list for this week.  Let's look at the same scene with different eyes, from other perspectives.  Add your own moods and consider the part our perspective plays in our perceptions.  I enjoyed it.  Hope you will, too.

1.  Here's what I see when I'm on cloud nine, when the stars align and I'm feeling great.

2.  I see this when I'm feeling a little blue, when I'm consumed with worry.

3.  I love the scene when I'm relieved, when something worked out just the way I had hoped. . . 

4.  And when I am in a remembering mood, considering things I'm thankful for, appreciating what I have and where I've been . . . 

5.  Sometimes I'm stuck somewhere and it's time to move on.  This might be what I see . . . 

6.  What about when I'm feeling excited?

7.  In a dreamy mood?

We can go anywhere we want with this. 

WAIT . . .

we can go anywhere we want?  Hmmmmm.

Keeping it in perspective, looking at it from one side or another, ours or another's, from the bright side or the gloomy side, with air or under water - it's our prerogative.

Interesting.  

Very interesting.

What do you see?

What do you see when you look at this?

Do you see . . . 

• opportunity, taking the steps to get things done?
• exercise, running free in the wind and breathing in deep breaths of live-giving air?
• new beginnings at the start of a fresh school year?
• the romping and running and relishing of childhood?
• fun in the sun and the rain, with buddies?

Are those some of the things you see?

Well, I don't - because we only have one of these.  Laugh if you dare, my friends.  Tomorrow you could awaken and find one of your shoes missing.  It happens.  

The view from behind different steering wheels . . .

“In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.” 
― Bertrand Russell


This is me driving a friend's Jaguar . . .

(Yep, my friend Tom just walked over to the cabin where I was recently staying and begged for me to trade my hot minivan for his okay 2001 Jag. *)

* Statements preceding this mark may not be the total truth.  

This is me earlier the same day, in a rain storm, enduring the elements, driving rugged terrain, searching for my son to save him from the wicked forces of nature.

The photos make me think.  They urge me to consider ways the same places look different when we look at them with opening eyes.  I remember about how much various perspectives can change the same place, similar situations, realities we are faced with again and again.

It's like that for you, too, I expect.  Sometimes we see things from under a plastic bag, bracing ourselves from a storm and sometimes we have the open, free perspective of a cool drive in a classic car.  

The terrain changes when our view does.  

Often I need to be reminded of that.  Sometimes I need a nudge that reminds me there are lots of different ways to look at everything . . . what a friend believes, how a child reacts, a problem that seems insurmountable.  

How about you?

“What we see depends mainly on what we look for.”
― John Lubbock

Keep your eyes open - there could be a big bone in the soup aisle!

Really, there could be a large dog bone in the soup aisle!

I was shopping Sunday night; not having too much fun, not making the mundane very zen-like the way I read I'm supposed to and not really doing a very good job of checking things off of my list.  It was one of those shopping trips where your mind is all over the place - it would be great to get in, get out and show up at home with the ingredients for five healthful dinners.  It wasn't turning out to be such a trip.  I had a list that was a bit discombobulated, I was pre-occupied with the 'to-dos' of the coming week and I wasn't being very logical about the task at hand.  It would be perfectly accurate to say that I was not in an 'intentional' state.

I moved along, and the only thing I do remember being aware of was that embarrassing feeling of seeing the same family on each turn to a new aisle - apparently we were shopping at the same pace but in opposite directions.  I remember them, but that's all I remember.

And then, poof!  I was awakened!  I began rolling my eyes along the lower area of the soup section, though I don't believe soup was on the list. I sort of noticed that the 'low sodium' Progresso was just about gone and then I saw IT!  A LARGE BONE WAS IN THE SOUP AISLE!  I loved it!  It made me laugh!  It woke me up!  It made me wonder, "Why would someone stash a large bone in the Progresso row?

I shared one of those smiles inside, that only I see, and enjoyed the secret laugh about the large bone.  I giggled to myself as I stooped oddly to take a photo and saw the elderly man wondering what was wrong with me.  I imagined him going home, and just before Wheel of Fortune, telling his wife about the sad lady in the funny black pants who was taking pictures of the lower shelf in the soup aisle.  It put a fun spin on the ordinary shopping trip!

My trip took on a new face, and I began to make conscious decisions.  I opted to quickly get the few items on the list and then get out of there!  I didn't want to spend my Sunday night ambling around the store, just waiting to see what I came upon in the Ingle's.  I remember being sure of that.

The 'bone in the soup aisle' has had me thinking, thinking about the many times I must be 'asleep' in life. I wonder how many occasions I muddle through, barely aware, not being in charge of my actions.  I wonder how often I miss out on being awake.

I'm thankful for the crazy big ole' bone in the soup aisle and for the way it woke me up.  I love that our eyes can see the out of ordinary in the midst of the mundane.  I'm glad that someone stuck the big bone in that spot, glad that it made me laugh and delighted that it served as a wake-up call.

Sometimes I need that.  I  suppose you might, too.  I'm keeping my eyes open today - who knows what I might see.  It probably won't be another bone, but maybe it will be something hilarious or touching or loud or soft or kind that wakes me up, makes me pay attention.

Here's to wake up calls in the soup aisle.