#4-Perspective is Key

“Perspective is everything when you are experiencing the challenges of life.“

~Joni Eareckson Tada

Facebook is great for reminding me of how I viewed things in the past. My habit of almost daily postings of gratitude make it easy to check back on important days to see how I was feeling or what I was thinking.

Two years ago on this date I wrote the following:

• Thankful today (August 17, 2016) for the perspective that time allows. It’s been a weird day. I spent a lot of it trying to figure out what was wrong with me. I had a vague notion that I was forgetting something important. I set off the smoke alarm at work, for crying out loud. In my defense, we have a four-slice toaster, and I needed 9 slices of toast, so the oven seemed like a good idea at the time.

Ah, the oven… For 25 years of my adult life, I baked my husband a German chocolate cake for his birthday. For the final 3 or 4, I even made the homemade frosting with coconut, pecans and condensed milk. It’s a pain, but it’s so much better than the canned version, and worth the extra work.

Wait, I only made 24 cakes because he left in late July. I already had the cake mix and everything for the frosting though. I sent it to his sister so she could make the birthday cake for him.

The perspective comes here. By leaving, he freed me from the life I thought I’d have.

I wouldn’t have gone to Washington to learn about nature and have all sorts of interesting adventures in the Anake Program and the Tracking Intensive at Wilderness Awareness School. I wouldn’t have learned to track wildlife or make herbal remedies. I’d have missed meeting some of the best friends I’ve ever had, and I wouldn’t be sitting in Idaho today thinking how lucky I am.

I am pleased to find that I can honestly say that I hope someone baked him a German chocolate cake today. And I’m not especially proud to say that I hope the frosting was canned.

Two years later, I’m still in Idaho. I still love it here.

The daycare closed a week ago, and everything is changing again. 

I just started a new job, and I’m optimistic that things will work out – again. Because things change. All the time. My perspective must keep changing, too.  I’m a work in progress.

I still hope the frosting was from a can.

Resources

• https://www.huffingtonpost.com/alison-patton/what-smart-women-do-after_b_1307356.html
• http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/separation-and-divorce
• https://www.td.org/magazines/td-magazine/perspective-shift-the-power-to-change-your-mind
• https://www.inc.com/nicolas-cole/change-your-perspective-change-your-life.html