Part 12: Perspective
Sometimes I am reminded that I need to get back to my roots. I remember loving our perspective lessons in my jr. high and high school art classes. In a way, that is my roots. Things that have made me what I am today: an art weirdie that also likes sciency, left-brain things.
But today I'd like to talk about perspective in a slightly different manner. The last 24 hours have taught me a lot about the beauty of comparing our lives to other's. I know, I know, everyone says comparisons never make us feel good about ourselves. But when you come across others with struggles you could only nightmare (opposite of dream) of going through you suddenly become grateful you are only a mid-single old maid living with over-active stomach acid.
Part 1: Last night, while standing unassumingly at a rather public spot in the temple, a brother worker asked me if I would go into the women's dressing room for him and get his wife and tell her they had a family emergency and she needed to get dressed in her street clothes to go home. I had to try to patch this message to her in intiatory and when she finally made it out to where I was standing, I told her to dress in her street clothes and though she didn't ask what was going on, I'm sure her heart was failing a bit at not knowing why they were leaving early. She left to go change and I stood there trying to imagine what she was feeling while dressing. I'm pretty sure I felt enough anxiety in that moment for her.
A few minutes later, her husband walked by and was stopped by the head of the temple emergency team who told him right in my ear shot that a family had member had called about an attempted suicide. It's amazing how being so close (spatially, not familially) to a situation can make me realize how far away my life is from that kind of drama: Perspective.
Part 2: This morning, a coworker brought a card over for me to sign for another coworker who was diagnosed with skin cancer a few months ago. After a few surgeries and tests he was declared clean. But, apparently they have just discovered cancer spread to his liver and lungs. Let me tell you about Andy. He can't be more than 25. From the moment I started working here, he was always super friendly and happy to be around. My heart goes out to him and his wife.
Perspective, you are a cruel cruel teacher. But I thank you, anyhow, for showing me the distance between my struggles and what they could be.
3 comments:
yeah, that is kind-of a sad post. Today I was thinking about how I have no sense of time, or how much had passed since certain events. I realized that I group events into bc (before cancer), and have no idea how long ago they really happened.
Perspective really does give us a lot to be grateful for. Sometimes I whine about little things but when I think about how there could be much bigger things wrong it helps me to keep a good attitude. Thanks for the perspective.
Thanks for sharing. I needed that.
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