Whether you know it or not, we all have a perspective on life. How do we handle things that happen to us and what do we do with these things. Some of us might take everything that happens to us and look at the positive side. Others may only focus on the negative in life. While the rest of us are usually in the middle of those two extremes. After all, very few people, if any, are always happy.
So what about you, how do you handle your life, and the things that happen in it?
I was walking late the other night along the water way on my way to some place. I don't even remember what my rush was, but at that moment it was important. I was frustrated and caught up in focusing on the negative and not even paying attention the beautiful area around me. More worried about the slow people walking in front of me then the beautiful weather surrounding me.
In my hurry my shoe comes untied and I walk over to the side to tie it. Across from me an elderly man is sitting on the bench with his walker and a bag of things hanging on it. He was just watching the boats come in to dock for the night. As I am tying my show he looks up and says, "Son, can I tell you a joke?" I reply with a "Sure."
He proceeds to tell me his joke. A simple joke that I'm sure everyone in the world has heard at some point. But the whole time he is telling me he is smiling and grinning with happiness. I walk over and sit down with him and we start talking. He was in his 70's, his wife had died two years ago, the bank took his house in Miami after he couldn't pay for it because he lost his job when they had to cut people. I asked him why he was in West Palm Beach, and he said he came to visit his only child, his son who lived here. He had not seen his son in years and just hours before I talked to him he had finally been reunited with his son, only to have his son tell him he wanted nothing to do with his father and to never talk to him again.
This man had every reason to be bitter at life. Instead, he was smiling and looking at the positive side. He showed me pictures of his wife and him when they were younger, pictures of his family and his house, and at every picture he pulled out he smiled a little bit and talked about all the good memories he had. Not once did he say a single negative thing. He never asked for money or anything else. Just wanted someone to talk with. Here I was worried about some small problem, while he had nothing and was still happier then most people in the world.
After talking for awhile we said goodbye and I got up. Forgetting my shoe was untied I tripped and landed on the pavement. He chuckled and just said, "Remember, it's all about perspective. Maybe you'll see the world in a new way from down there."
Perspective. What is yours?
If someone with nothing can find joy is the smallest of things, surely we can also find joy in the world. So next time you get annoyed at the Starbucks worker for spelling your name wrong or your friend who bailed on you to watch the entire season of a show on Netflix, just remember that there is so much more to the world. I can be guilty of being caught up in all the activities of life to, but I am working on it. I encourage you to really think about how you see things.
Keep that one work in mind as you go through life. Perspective.
