written in June, a reflection on perspective…
Yesterday I walked around the back of the barn to the left side of the pond, a tucked away spot where I haven’t spent much time. From there I could see the cows walk up the road to their evening paddock. In the 2 1/2 years that I have been at Cricket Creek, I don’t think I have ever watched the cows walk up to pasture from this vantage point. The view was very striking to me – I saw the hills in the different way, the pond, the bushes, the trees all from a different perspective. It was a refreshing change of scenery. I almost felt like it was a new or different piece of land as I stood there admiring the beauty of it.
I sat down on the wet grass to watch the line of cows walk and thought about this appreciation for a change of perspective as a physical representation of the benefits of a mental change of perspective. In this case, I was in fact looking at the same hills that I always look at, even though they seemed so different. In so much of my daily life, I get stuck in one way of looking at a task, or work. I have been thinking lately about trying to imagine a task, a problem, or an idea from a completely different vantage point, to see how it feels. I don’t just mean trying to come up with new ideas or solutions to questions, but rather flip the whole question or conundrum around so I’ve turned it on its head. It usually feels refreshing and clears my head from whatever confusion or muck is stumping my creative processes. Here’s to new a perspective!