Perspective

This magnet is attached to my fridge.  My Dad printed it for me I think in late 2021 or early 2022.  It encompasses one of my photos with a phrase I have always believed in.  It's what I use to identify my cruise cabin (when I remember to pack it and if the cabin door is metal).  It was my Dad's idea to print magnets for us all to help us find ours and each others' cabins on family cruises.  We all picked different images that we had taken.  He even printed one for my former mother-in-law as she was traveling with us on that early 2022 cruise through the Panama Canal.

I remember the day I took the photo.  We had checked out of our beach front hotel and were stopping at a couple of bird hotspots on the drive home from the Gulf coast.  This was on a stretch of beach after my ex-husband had turned around to go back to the car.  He often turned around before me.  Maybe that was a blessing because that has left me with many untainted memories where he wasn't even present.  In the moment I snapped the photo, I didn't realize exactly what I was looking at.  Often my camera captures more than my mind can process in the moment.  Maybe that's why I like bird photography vs just bird watching with a pair of binoculars.

Sitting in the passenger seat, as he drove us north towards home, I had my laptop out so that I could download and start editing photos.  When this one popped up on my screen, I remember the delight I felt.  This is a juvenile Black Skimmer, which was a new species to me at that time and the yoga like pose he was in created such an intriguing image.  Although I rarely get to see it because I have too many darn windows open, this photo is also the backdrop of my MacBook screen.  

Like the paintings I wrote about earlier in this post that seemed to have darker messages than I remember consciously feeling, I wonder what I had buried that made me feel so strongly about always readjusting my perspective.  It's a great skill to take stock of our perspective and what other perspectives exist when reacting to anything so on its surface this seems like a great life mantra.  But looking for a new perspective shouldn't be at the expense of the reality that exists.

I twisted myself into yoga positions like this young shorebird so many times to find the perspective that excused bad behavior, diminished cruelty, and tolerated what I never should have tolerated.

Maybe the better question to ask is how to do I stay better in tune with my feelings so that I can make decisions with more information in the future?  How can I keep myself open to all perspectives without dismissing my own reality?