In a Different Light

It doesn’t happen all that often but when it does, it’s an expansive experience. Sure, sometimes we’d prefer not to expand… or to be expanded… but expansion is just another way of looking at growth. And to grow is to be alive. To live with an openness to growth and expansion is to see things or others in a different light. Seeing differently can change us.

Perhaps we once saw ugliness, but we learned new information and that new information sparked compassion in place of disgust. Perhaps we previously held certain opinions in contempt, but we read a news article that offered a helpful perspective, and our loathing yielded to understanding. Perhaps we formerly looked upon persons who seemed vastly dissimilar to us as aliens to be avoided until a conversation with one such person in the hospital waiting room led us to recognize commonality as well as distinction. Expansion. Growth. Change. Surprising perhaps, but usually a marvelous thing.

If we are able to enjoy more than a couple of decades of hanging around on this orb circling the sun, we might come to see even ourselves in a different light. Maybe we’ve made peace with the size of our nose or the weathered condition of our skin. Perhaps we now accept our faults with gentler grace than a previous version of ourselves driven by perfectionism once did. It’s not outside the realm of possibility that we come to release our parents, stepparents, guardians, teachers, grandparents, and all other adults who might have left a less-than-loving mark on our tender young selves as we were being formed from the burden of responsibility for who we have become. We humans have the capacity to change, to grow, to expand… and it can be a most marvelous thing.

Every person is unique, this we know. And how a person views oneself might vary wildly from the way others see that same self. We might have been conditioned to see and focus only on our “rough edges,” so it comes as a surprise when others see beauty or giftedness or strength. Wise teacher and author Parker Palmer [Parker J. Palmer | Center for Courage & Renewal] offers the possibility of viewing humanity with curiosity rather than judgement which usually pops up as criticism. In such light, we wonder. That’s it. We wonder and wondering leads to questions and questions give rise to conversation and conversation just might spawn understanding. Perhaps we could try it for a day and discover what we might see in such a different light. There could be expansion. Growth. Change. How marvelous!