Picture taken in Duluth MN, by the author, Esther Schultz.
What if we looked at things from another person’s perspective?
Would the leaves look the same? Would they see the same rocks? Would they see the water as you see it?
How many of us are “right fighters”? I will raise my hand along with you on this one. I want to be right. There is this need inside me at times that I have to be right and so it prevents me from really listening to others. It blinds me and am not able to see things from a different perspective. Anyone else?
What if we are not always right. Or what if, what we believe to be right or true for us is not what is right or true for someone else.
We are all on a journey in this life. A journey of living each day until our very end. And in our individual journeys we are going on different paths. Some are similar paths, but that does not mean they are the same. I think we have all seen that meme that says, “we are not all in the same boat, we are all in the same sea, but some are in a canoe, some are on a ship, some are in a leaky sailboat etc. It is not the same for everyone.”
I think of me and my siblings. We lived a similar childhood in that we were all raised in the same household, with the same values and belief system. But our paths were distinctive enough that it shaped us differently. Our differing paths taught us separate lessons. They took us in various directions as we got older.
Some may say, well their paths were the right way, and your way was wrong. But who can really question this? Who can sit by and judge when all that is seen are glimpses, snapshots, along the way? No one can see what is in the heart. The individual challenges that people face are not always visible. But it is these differing struggles that help us choose the paths we navigate. They help shape our beliefs and perspectives.
We do not know the paths others have taken. We do not know the journey they are on that has led them to this place where you meet them. Instead of coming to that crossroads demanding that we are right, what if we asked what brought them to this place. Why do they believe what they do? Could they have more knowledge? Could their interpretation or position be valid?
Instead of blasting away on our horn of rightness, what if we stood silent, allowing the other person to speak, and listened with an open heart and mind.
All that we believe has been formulated by the journey our lives have taken us on. Imagine for a moment what it would be like if we all came to the table willing to see things through a different lens. A different perspective. Instead of blasting away on our horn of rightness, what if we stood silent, allowing the other person to speak, and then listened with an open heart and mind. Open to understanding why they see things as they do.
When I was kid, my siblings and I and the neighborhood kids used to climb this tree close to our house. We would always end up at our desired destinations on the tree at different times and in different places. Sometimes we would climb similar routes but would end up stepping on different branches because some legs were shorter or longer than the next persons. Some would even wait at the bottom for their turn to climb the tree.
We could see so many things from this tree, but it would look different for each one of us and some couldn’t see things at all. The reason for this was because of our different viewpoints. Our different perspectives. I may have two branches distorting the view that the person next to me could see clearly.
Life is like this; we can all look at the same thing and have a different viewpoint. A different perspective, that is one hundred percent true for us based on our different life experiences. It doesn’t necessarily make us right and them wrong. Just like it doesn’t necessarily make us wrong and them right. It just makes it different.
Everyone has different life experiences, leading us to different personal truths which may lead to disagreeing views based on our own perspectives.
So, what if, when we came to the table, instead of being a right fighter, we listened to one another, open to the possibility that they might be right or may have more valid knowledge then us. Or just have a different perspective. What if we respected each other’s viewpoints, showed empathy and love, and found a way to meet in the middle?
Imagine how much more peaceful life could be.
Imagine what we could accomplish in life.
Comments