On perspective
Last week, I caught up with a coworker about his personal life. He’s an avid athlete, serial entrepreneur, and a new father, whose first child just turned one. During our conversation we mused on the topic of perspective - from both a figurative and literal place.
“She’s learning so much, Erin. So fast. I tell her or show her how to do something, and she can, she does.” I could see joy and pride and a bit of bewilderment and concern all reflected on his face. “It’s making me rethink what I’m doing and how I’m doing it when I’m around her. You hear about this - that notion of “little ears” - but it’s different when you’re experiencing it, when it’s your own kid.”
I nodded in agreement, acknowledging this shift of awareness. I’m not a parent, but I have a lot of littles in my life.
He continued on, sharing about a recent trip to the mountains with a core group of male friends, and I thanked him for sharing some pictures of the mountains, the snow, and the trees on social media. “I won’t get there this winter, seeing through your eyes did my soul good.”
“I’m so grateful for that time with them; having a solid group of friends in middle age that is in the same phase of life as you is such a gift. But also, yes! Spending a long weekend out in nature. I would skirt off into the trees periodically and just stop and look around. Let my eyes focus on what was in front of me, what was far in the distance. It made me realize how small our worlds can get, if we let it. For people like us, who work from home…it can shrink to less than 10 square feet, in front of that computer.”
I nodded more vigorously this time. Humans were not meant to only focus on things within a 2 foot radius around them. In fact, the increase in myopia (near-sightedness) in recent decades can be directly attributed to the increase in “near work” - on books, on TV, on computers. Make no mistake - I’m not claiming these activities are bad, only that we need balance. We need to exercise both our near and far sightedness.
You could argue we need to do the same in our behavior - how do I see what I am doing versus how do others (my children, my peers, my neighbors) see it?
What can I learn from both? How might I adjust my actions?
Be well, beautiful people.
