Perspective

I am in a constant effort to pursue a healthy perspective on life. Maybe its because I teach kids who, by their very design, lack perspective. Countless times my students run to me in absolute distress because someone cut them in line, or took their swing. I know that it is a normal stage in their development, and that many of them have the bliss of ignorance as to what an ACTUAL big deal is; and so I try to help them work out their issue and start to develop perspective.

I think it is frustrating though, how many adults I come across who also lack perspective, and with no discernible good reason. They should not be going through "a stage". Haven't we all seen it? Someone angry with a cashier because their $.30 coupon got declined, or setting up a meeting with the principal because their child did not get put into the same 3rd grade class as his or her friends. I feel like a lot of the Facebook posts that I read from people who are enraged about some injustice, are many times really just a lack of perspective. Like I tell my kids, "Someone got the worst possible news of their life today, and it wasn't you. We can work this out."

I was doodling the other day, and I wanted to share what I came up with. Kind of The Serenity Prayer's long lost cousin, twice removed, The Perspective Prayer.

Please give me the eyes to see things objectively.
Even when it is hard.
Really teach me to appreciate how blessed my life is.
Switch my focus from my problems to my opportunities.
Provide chances for me to see what burdens others carry-that I may make them lighter.
Every time something goes wrong, help me to...
Choose the BIG PICTURE over the zoom lens of my life.
Teach me how great my riches are in my family...
In my friends. And when things are...
Very challenging, may I remember that...
Even then, life is good.


“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln