Wednesday, April 29, 2015

What Do You See?



What do you see?
Life is all about perspective, or how we see things; our point of view from where we sit.

In the book, "To Kill A Mockingbird," the young girl Scout finds herself unwillingly standing on the front porch of the "scary and mysterious" neighbor named Boo Radley.  (His nickname Boo was for obvious reasons. The embellished legends of his nightly prowls around the neighborhood were longstanding and though untrue, continue to this day.)

Scout had just crashed into the porch as the wildly spinning tire she was curled up in went rolling out of control.  As she stands in this frightful spot and desperately tries to shake the dizziness away, she looks down her neighborhood street and sees her world in a different light....from Boo's perspective.
 

Horse-drawn wagons, the transportation of that era, are slowly moving down the street in the hot, Mississippi sun, in absolutely no rush to go anywhere. Miss Maudie is tending her lovely flower garden and here comes her father, Atticus, down the sidewalk, walking home from his office in town for lunch.  She sees her brother Jem, and friend, Dill, playing hide-n-seek in the neighbors garden. 

For a brief few moments, she gets a view of the neighborhood from Boo's front porch and a fresh perspective of what it looks like from someone else's front porch.  

In life, we need to choose to see things from other points of view.  It is a choice. When we do this, it is life-altering and relationship-building as we come to understand others better when we walk in their shoes.

My question is:  What do you see in the picture above?

Do you see weeds?  

Or do you see flowers?

Choose to understand more than to be understood.  It will make all the difference.

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Email:  laura@realgurllife.com