New Year, Thirteenth Step

The outside world is definitely brighter this morning; we’ve had the first real snow of the winter season which has blanketed the ground with a pristine layer of fluff. Despite the implications for driving and the wind chill factor, an occasional snow day is manageable—not so much my husband’s mood which, at the first hint of Suzy Snowflake’s arrival, plummets faster than the temperature. He hates winter, an aversion I do not share; it is just one of many issues on which we are poles apart, but we are finally learning how to work with that challenging state of affairs. Sometimes I think we even succeed in changing our relationship cadence from one step forward, two steps back to two steps forward and one step back, a definitely welcome change in pace.

Change is both helpful and hopeful, and despite our ardent denials at times, always possible—not easy or painless, but doable. There is at least a modicum of truth in the quote I used in yesterday’s posting. “We are all just one small adjustment away from making life work.” When something changes…something changes; one change begets another. Life, in one aspect or another, begins to work or function differently--sometimes drastically, at others almost imperceptibly, but movement happens.

There are many obstacles to the occurrence of change, as well as numerous reasons for or against it in a given set of circumstances or situation: desire, need, ability, feasibility, familiarity, relationships, experience, knowledge, material and personal cost, time, principle, benefit, risk… .Yet, there is one common denominator in every situation; regardless of the factors involved, despite what is and is not under our control--the choice of perspective remains ours to determine. Perspective is powerful; perspective can change  everything and anything. The harbinger of greatest hope is that even when nothing around us seems to change—a change in perspective changes us. How? An adjusted perspective makes the urgency of desired situational changes shrink in importance. It can be the very adjustment we need to get unstuck, to stand back up on our feet, to move forward, to choose a different direction, to establish a new dynamic, to find contentment, to experience satisfaction, to rest at peace.

I believe there is a strong deterministic element in the connection between our perspective and our emotions. If this is true, a change in perspective will not only affect our mental state and our attitude, but our emotional slate as well. Perceiving something or someone through a different lens or from an alternate angle, can change both our stream of thought and the tenor of our emotions toward a particular person or situation.

It is hard for me to have to abruptly end this blog piece—I am not very comfortable leaving mid-reflection-- but I am out of time and doubt that I will have an opportunity to write further before day’s end, at least before it’s too late write with an acceptably lucid mind. So instead I will leave you with a question to ponder until tomorrow.

If perceptions power emotions, what powers our perceptions?