No tags yet.
One of my favorite songs of all time is 30,000 feet by Ben Rector. He is a great singer with a lot of songs I love (10/10 recommend if you have never listened to his music), but this one might be my favorite. Airplanes are incredible for multiple reasons, from the speeds they reach to the pilot’s ability to navigate one to the technology required to successfully make it from point a to point b via air. One of the coolest things about them, though, is when you are a passenger, airplanes put you 30,000 feet in the air. People look like ants. You can see the roads and streets intersecting and dividing as they cut through cities and towns. You become one with the clouds, riding at the same level they float. It’s all about perspective.
“Sometimes it takes the sky to see what’s on the ground”. Rector sings this line in his song as he details the perspective offered to anyone aboard a flight. It is hard to look at things the same way when you are that far away from having your feet on the ground. Most see airplanes as means of travel to get to your destination in the quickest way possible; a business trip, a vacation, a sports trip. I think there is more to it than that. I think for a few hours, we get the luxury to leave things on the ground behind, and just be while we fly to our destination. We get to look out the window and see the sunset literally right next to us or fly back into our hometown at night that we have seen a billion times, but now be able to see every single light on at the same time. There is nothing like it. It’s all in the perspective.
I am telling you this because while planes are an effective metaphor for changing your perspective, it doesn’t take an expensive plane ticket and a crammed flight to offer you the ability to change your perspective on things. While it may help, yes, to leave everything behind for a few hours and fly miles above it, all it really takes is a desire to be better. All it takes is a want to live the brightest and happiest life possible. All it takes is an intentionality to find the joy and the light when it looks like every single light bulb is burnt out. Even the worst of situations can be transformed into positive ones because it is all in the perspective.
Perspective is a choice. How you choose to see what is right in front of you and the situation you are going through is completely up to you. We may not be able to control what life is throwing at us, but we sure as heck can control our responses and the way we catch it all. There is joy to be found is every single situation, no matter how bad it may seem. It may sound naïve, but in reality, find it courageous. It is brave to have to have the strength under unfortunate circumstances to say “I choose to find the good in this”. You may have to look extra hard, but it is always worth it.
This lesson right here, that perspective is everything, changed my life and is really the foundation for this entire blog and Sincerely, An Optimist. Two years ago, today, my first knee injury set my life on a completely different track. As I am back playing and officially close that chapter, I am reminded of how an intentionality to find joy and a fight to see the good no matter what made my bad days not so bad. Make the choice to create a habit of smiling and enjoying the season of life you’re in no matter what it looks like. One day, that season of life and that chapter will close, and you will have grown so much from finding the good in it. As the great Albus Dumbledore says, “Happiness can be found in the darkest of times if one only remembers to turn on the light”.
Optimistic Thought of the Day – “Optimism is a happiness magnet. If you stay positive, good people and good things will be drawn to you” – Mary Lou Retton