Perspective #1 - Spring temperatures today brought lots of smiles to faces, lots of people out from under their winter parkas and lots of puddles to roadways. Most drivers are awesome at driving around puddles so they don't splash pedestrians. Most. Today I had the experience of meeting up with one who didn't purposefully switch lanes. One whom I'm quite sure drove faster to make a bigger splash. I saw the speeding vehicle coming but with no where to jump and only seconds to make a bolt in any direction I went into protection mode and simple turned my back and covered my head. Swwwooooosssshhhh.... SOAKED!!
He got me good. One minute I was basking in the sunshine the next I was dripping wet as if I just stepped out of the shower. Nutty! And so funny. I turned to Joy, my dog, who I managed to shelter from the bulk of the deluge, and started laughing. What a sight that must have been!! I was drenched but still happy to be out walking in above zero weather. No injuries only road pebbles in my hair and some clothing requiring a good washing.
Perspective #2 - Last summer in Warman I was out biking, again with Joy, and we got caught in a hail storm. A wicked, vicious outburst of ice plummeting from the sky at what felt like a million miles per hour causing bruises and welts all over my arms and legs. Soaked to the core, shaking like a leaf and in a surreal state of shock we finally made our way home. I was rattled and sore but nothing that didn't heal within a couple of days.
Perspective #3 - A early morning email message: My sister and her family are vacationing in Hawaii. They have been up all night on alert just in case the after shock of the tsunami forces them to move to higher ground. They are scared and tired but safe; no need to worry. For a brief moment the whole family felt the shock wave of a catastrophic world event becoming personal with the flash of her words on the screen. But the shock subside as we learn that they are now simply tourists in a tropical paradise kept from the beach.
Perspective #4 - Across the Pacific a tsunami leaves parents childless while other children are now utterly alone in an epic wasteland. Communities vanished in the mighty power of a wave. Gone. Gone. Not hurt, not lost, but gone! My mind has no paradigm to feel the level of this loss. People enduring physical and emotional devastation unlike anything I have experienced.
Water. Each scenario a story of water, different yet connected in this essential element of life. I am humbled tonight by the lesson within the water that reminds me to hold perspective; to remember what is important and let go of what is not. In my mind a puddle can become a tsunami, or a tsunami a puddle, as I allow it. My choice.
Peace is my gift when I know the difference in perspective.
:)
ReplyDelete