A Last Sunset
Perspective can be an endless source of gratitude.
The picture above might just look like some trees. But this is the last sunset that crested that hackberry’s canopy. It watched families come, grow, and go. Shaded hot summer afternoons. Whistled in winter winds. And when I see trees at this time of day with their tops glowing I am reminded of Duncanson’s Blue Hole painting, and I get nostalgic about the memories of my own lost summers in this humid midsection of America. On any other night, that’s just another tree. But on this night, it was goodbye.
We can choose to live in any part of the moment. Let that sink in, you can choose to live any part of the present moment. That means there are infinite ways, infinite slices, infinite perspectives, infinite parts of a moment.
So, why do we sometimes get stuck, negative, doubt ourselves, stress out over what we did or didn’t say or do? Why do we feel a need to perpetuate negative feelings, to focus on them so keenly?
It’s not because other more positive perspectives aren’t available or accessible, but because we expect life to give us another moment, another day, another chance.
I was having one of these negative, wallowing days today when I learned someone very dear had passed away. She was an inspiration, the kind of person you’d meet and walk away thinking “What life am I living… I gotta be more like her!”
And so the more I thought about her today, the more I found myself choosing the right parts of the moment to live in. Instead of being sucked into the vortex of hate known as other people driving cars, I observed and tried to make space for everyone crossing my path. Instead of being lost in thinking about my next todo once I get done baking muffins for my son, I treasured the quickly vanishing moments of “work” required to keep a toddler happy. Instead of getting sucked into my phone while the muffins baked, I looked in deep awe at my wife as she made dinner.
The moments go and you can’t stop them from going. But the part of the moment you inhabit is your choice. Thanks, Mrs. E, for a final lesson.
I like that: we can choose our focus in each moment of life. I agree, we often focus on the negatives, and that focus becomes an attachment. It's good to recognize our feelings, acknowledge them, but we don't have to be controlled by them.