Perspective

It's a funny thing, isn't it?

Perspective. Vantage point. Angle. Mindset. Attitude.

Take this shot, for example. A picture that my Mom took of my little Madeleine. Sweet. Rosy cheeks from playing at the playground.

Wonder what she's smiling at...what has her attention...

Ah, that would be me.

With my camera. (She was all smiles for us at the park. A regular little model.)

And I love the picture that I see. That I captured. But I think I like the other perspective even better...the way someone else captured her looking at me.

So, I'm trying to keep perspective fresh on my mind. About how a slightly different perspective on my part can change my response...my attitude.

For instance, in situations like this one that I stumbled upon this morning:

Hmmm. My first perspective labels this a mess. Disaster zone. Frustration-in-cleaning to come. (And that unmade bed? Not unmade from the night before. Unmade from this Mommy making it within the past hour of said picture.)

My first instinct is to have them clean immediately. Because we have items to check off my list and school to do and I do not like mess and I need to run some errands too.

And then I enter the room. And see this face:

Beaming. Delighted in his creation.

(And a three-year old not quite sure yet if Mom likes it or not.)

And this face:
Mischievious. Excited at their play.

And so I choose to change perspective.

From mess to creation.

From frustrated to content.

From rigid to flexible.

From weary to welcome.

Isn't this what I want? My children playing together? Involved in imaginative play? They were fixing "leaks" with extra blankets. Working together. Problem solving.

And their delight? It grew exponentially when they saw my delight in them. So we played together. And yes, a few things that were important to me didn't get done today.

But in the bigger picture (the perspective that I'll have one day) this morning was time well spent.

Because those most important to me (and their interests) came first.