Viewing Life From a Different Distance

Watching fireworks from a distance provides the observer with bursts of brilliant color, beautiful shapes and perfectly choreographed fire dances.  A show put on by individuals who have spent a lot of time studying Pyrotechnics. Everything appears to be perfectly orchestrated and seems to go off without any glitches.  A vision of near perfection when observed from the proper distance.

Move in a bit closer and the dance takes on a whole different look.  Random explosions that seem to occur without any rhyme or reason.  Black and green smoke fill the skies and float upon the surface of the water creating a confusing scene.  The dark skies light up, yet the explosions seem to be just that...Explosions.  Sudden and not easily observable while watching from a distance. Haphazard and chaotic, yet still strangely beautiful.

This was my experience with fireworks, this year.  We were able to observe one show at a distance and it was perfect and lovely.  Something that has become fairly familiar after spending forty-six summers of my life observing Fourth of July displays.  However, less than a fourth of a mile from my front yard on the ocean, a very different scene took place.  Fire seemed to settle on the water as ringlets of smoke cascaded down from the heavens.  The "oooh's and ahh's" which usually rise from the crowds of observers were replaced with an almost eery quiet.  A different kind of awe was taking place.  The awe of viewing the same exact scene from a very different perspective.

Life is like that.  Perception can be variant depending upon where something is being viewed from.  From one perspective, things may seem to be easy and charmed, yet when looked at from another viewpoint, the ordinary is suddenly extraordinary.  The things we expect are replaced with things we have never seen.  We are suddenly struck with the realization that there is never really only one way in which to view our lives.  There are many, many ways, once we open ourselves up to different distances...Different perspectives.

This year has been a lot like that for me.  In many ways, I feel as if I have been observing my life from a different distance.  Sometimes, chaotic and uglier than anything I have ever experienced before.  Sometimes, just as I had expected.  And sometimes, strangely beautiful from distances I never imagined standing at.

May we all remain mindful of the many, many different perspectives from which our lives can be viewed.  May we keep our spirits open to looking at life from where ever we might end up at any given moment.  May we remain open to the views from a different distance for in some ways, those are the places from which we can learn the most.