Perspective

I was thinking about perspective on the ride home from the Cubs game tonight.  We took a bus to remote parking and I observed two sets of women talking on the bus.  One set of friends were complaining about the length of the ride, the number of times we had to stop at stop signs, and that they had to go to work in the morning.  The other set of friends were talking about things that had happened earlier in the day and were laughing about them.  It struck me that some people see things as “glass half full” and others see things as “glass half empty”.  I know that when I focus on “glass half full” I am happier.  I also don’t let myself be pulled into the drama and judgment of various interactions when I hold the experience as “isn’t that interesting?” rather than “oh my gosh, how awful”.

As I thought about perspective I was reminded of a trip I took to Greece with several friends.  The night before we were flying out of Athens to go home we found out that our flight was going to be delayed for at least 8 hours, which meant that we had an additional day in Athens.  The group that I was with decided to take full advantage of that time and went to a club where we met a singer who was not only from the US, but her uncle owned a restaurant near us and we brought a note back for him.  In addition, we got up early the next morning to explore more of Athens which included several very powerful experiences.

Another group that was traveling with us spent the extra time being upset about it and missed the opportunity to explore more of Greece.  I remembered thinking at the time what a waste it was complaining about things over which you have no control.  Which brings me back to the topic for this entry – perspective.  Isn’t it interesting what a difference your perspective has on your experience?  And, further, how do you think your experiences are influenced by your perspective?