Change Your Perspective. See Life With New Eyes. - Betty Streff
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Change Your Perspective. See Life With New Eyes.

morning perspective

Change Your Perspective. See Life With New Eyes.

(A three-minute read) “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”~ Max Planck

 

I love walking through the hallways of an elementary school and checking out the artwork. Self-portraits always make me smile. And then there are the wonderful, clumsy first pictures of buildings and boxes with smudgy lines and erasures. Think back to learning perspective. Remember when you found out how to create imaginary lines leading to a “vanishing point?” That’s a big discovery! You learned you could make a flat object jump off the page and become three-dimensional by simply using your pencil to put lines in the right places. It was magic!

 

Perspective, the “art of drawing objects so as to give the appearance of distance or depth” is a term first used in the 1500’s. It took 200 years for a more figurative use of the word to take hold. Eventually perspective also became a term for a mental outlook formed ever time. Look at the middle of the word and you’ll find “spec” as in spectacles! Perspective is another word for our point of view.

 

study in perspective

See things like a noticer!

 

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.” ~ Marcel Proust.

 

How often do we look without really seeing? Sometimes when we travel I’m glued to the car window, transfixed. My jaw is dropped in amazement at the surroundings. Meanwhile, impatient drivers zip around us, oblivious to the splendor I see with new eyes. I wonder if they even notice the sun filtering through the trees or the way the shadows fall across the mountains or how morning light transforms an ordinary street scene. Have their senses gone numb?

 

I hope yours never do because it’s tragic to stumble along, shuffling through life oblivious to the miracles and beauty in the everyday. Last week I shared a new word with you. Sonder. It’s the state of mind where we’re zapped to attention by the sudden realization of our connectedness with everything and everyone. It’s impossible to be bored or apathetic once we become aware of those two simple truths. Beauty is everywhere. We are all one.

 

More from Marcel Proust, “The only true voyage of discovery, the only fountain of Eternal Youth, would be not to visit strange lands but to possess other eyes, to behold the universe through the eyes of another”…..

 

a different perspective

 

Get a new perspective. See life with new eyes!

 

“Many people ignore ‘small stuff,’ claiming to have an eye on the bigger picture, never understanding that the bigger picture is composed entirely of small stuff.”~Andy Andrews

 

It’s important to understand what author Andy Andrews is saying in this quote. Our life is not meant to be lived by simply getting through another day. Getting it over with. It’s not meant to be gulped down like some sort of nasty medicine. No, it’s meant to be sipped! Notice the temperature, the flavor, the consistency. It’s a small and subtle shift as you go about your day, but it changes everything.

 

new perspective

 

I want to tell you something. Noticers get noticed. Noticers stand apart from the herd and see things other people miss because of their subtly different perspective on things. Take for example this photo, what some might have seen as an “ordinary morning street scene.” My brother was smitten and described the light as “irresistible” as he captured this stunning image. Once he posted it, the compliments poured in. That street corner moment carried a gift. It was a thing of beauty so many would have missed as they plodded into what they believed to be another dull and ordinary day. See what I mean?

 

I’d love to share my “see life with new eyes” message with your group and change the way they view themselves and their work! If you’d like to know more, please email me at bjstreff@gmail.com or call me at 308.627.5558. Life is so much sweeter when you become a noticer!

 

I’ll see you all again on Thursday! Have a terrific week!

 

6 Comments
  • Gail
    Reply

    You are a marvelous noticer — and your brother Stan has reminded me to slow down and look longer. What a wonderful way to live! Thank you!

    October 30, 2017 at 3:32 am
  • Molly
    Reply

    Love this ❤️ Thank you for your wisdom

    October 30, 2017 at 5:54 am
  • Patricia A. Johnson
    Reply

    I am sometimes call the dilly dallier because I am constantly noticing all the little things in my environment. I walk up the side walk to the office building and pick up the beautiful colored leaves that have fallen on the side walk. I too and glued to the window as we drive anywhere. Life is full of color and wonder if we only take our eyes from our phones and the other electrical devices that get in the way of truly enjoying whats right in front of us. Thank you for such a grand reminder to look at the world and all its inhabitants with new eyes and not through the lens of our phone.
    Bright Blessings

    October 30, 2017 at 11:13 am
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