It's all a matter of perspective

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Perspective

It's all a matter of perspective.


I have found myself saying this a lot lately. Perspective can change everything.

One of my very favorite quotations is from Harper Lee's Great American Novel To Kill a Mockingbird (which in my view is the best novel to come out of America ever--you can not change my perspective on this!). Atticus Finch tells his daughter Scout:

You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view . . . until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.

This is so true. And this has become one of my guiding principles as a military wife, particularly when it comes to separations. I no longer feel smug or criticize my civilian friends for complaining when their husbands are away on job business for one or two nights. Just as I would hope other military wives would not criticize me for being upset for a 3-week TDY or a 6-month deployment, when their husbands are gone for 6 months at a stretch on a 12-month deployment. Gone is gone. 


Another perspective is weather. Having lived on the West Coast, the Midwest, the Northern Plains, South Central Texas, and now South Central Alaska--I think you'll agree I have had plenty of weather-related change. I always try to preface weather posts on Facebook with "this is normal" or "this is strange even for the locals," just to add...perspective.

I hope that I never forget to consider things from others' points of view.

And that's my 5 minutes!