Sunday Musings: What You Look at is What You See

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What you look at IS what you see.

I have a new acquaintance.  She is  sweet, outgoing and personable.  However, she is consumed with tales of woe about her life.  Her ex-husband takes advantage of her, people owe her money, her daughter is a disrespectful mess, her house is falling apart, and she's gaining weight.


I listen then try to gently change guide the conversation in another direction.  I don't want to add energy to her sad stories.

I wish she realized that whatever she is looking at--all the negative things in her life--is all that she sees.

When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.

Great Smokey Mountains of NC

My family used to visit an elderly relative.  Oh, how I wished she was a sweet, little ole lady.  Wrong-y Dong-y.  This lady was a self-absorbed, angry woman and mean as a rattle snake.  Lordy, how I dreaded those visits.

One visit, I decided to focus on the beautiful scenery on the ride to visit her.  I decided to be grateful for a good meal that I didn't have to prepare or clean up after. I focused on forgiveness. Certainly something had happened in her life to make her so bitter.  I decided not to 'bite' when she would bait me. I smiled and let her words hang in the air, then disintegrate .  Like a pillow fight, it takes two to participate.

I finally realized that I had control of what I chose to see.

Do you find what you look at is what you see? 
 
Happy Sunday, y'all.