From the Outside Looking In

From the outside looking in.
Everyone out there has a story, a reason, a set of circumstances that make them the individual that they are. Some people have had a lot of difficult times to navigate through, and are learning how to deal with them. To some, the difficult times have been recent and they’re just now learning to get past them, and to others, those times were ages ago and will haunt them, to some degree, the rest of their lives. We’ve all had trouble on some level or another. Some trouble is life altering, some trouble is a fleeting irritation that one can brush off and keep going. Everyone’s trouble is different, and how you perceive it from the outside looking in may not be the way it is at all.

Every trait in a person has it’s upside or downside. It’s how you focus on it that forms your opinion of that trait. Self confidence can be read as conceit or can be admirable. A person with a lot of knowledge or ideas can be seen as opinionated. If one is hard working and driven, one could see that as bossy, or self important. If one is happy go lucky, someone else might see immature, irresponsible. If one is responsible, one might think they are too serious, or lacking fun. Yet, if one is fun loving, one can see it as irresponsible. The flip side of moody is that a person feels deeply, loves deeply, and cares deeply. If someone loves with abandon, they can be seen as foolish, reckless, but some see it as giving their all to someone. Some see a person who would do anything for someone else as a weakness and some may use it to their advantage, meanwhile others seek out that very trait in a partner. Some people can’t see humor in sarcasm. Others don’t understand grief and pain because they haven’t experienced it on the deepest level yet. Just about everyone has lost someone dear to them, and loss hurts. The depth of the loss is in direct proportion to how and when they get past it.

Everyone has a different outlook on life, and it’s uniquely their own, it’s not one size fits all, and yours isn’t necessarily for me, nor mine for you. But that’s okay! We are an ever changing species, learning, experiencing, evolving, growing. If you judge someone based on things they’ve said, or their current disposition, you are shutting out every other piece of their personality. A person who has experienced a traumatic loss can be spiritually challenged on certain dates, or even for certain months. That doesn’t mean they are a miserable person, it means they’re doing the best that they can to ride it out, because they know it will pass eventually. One might see them as miserable, someone else might see it as an opportunity to give them love, and others may see nothing at all. It’s all a matter of perception. Your perception is as unique as a fingerprint, because only you are looking at the things and paying attention to the things you choose to see.

So, the conclusion here is everyone is different, and sees things differently. It doesn’t make them right or you wrong. It just means we can take a moment to stop, think, listen, try to put yourself in their place for a minute, but realize that you still can’t fully feel what they are feeling. Then apply your love to all the good you can find, and watch the less than desirables fade into the distance. Circumstances change, feelings come and go like the tide. Love is acceptance. A simple theory that isn’t always easy to follow, apply love and have faith.