Saturday night has become something of a ritual – space and time to cook a lovely dinner with my husband and sometimes share the evening with friends. It’s an opportunity to reconnect and reflect on the week just gone, put the world to rights or simply hang out at our favourite place, the back of our house, which nestles into the side of a mountain with big trees and a long history.
Last night was such a night. Dinner cooking and glass in hand we stood gazing at the emerging night sky. Lost in the moment, in my own world, I was brought back into my beloved’s world, telling me about the clouds he could see floating in the distance. Yes, I could see them I told him, and we had a brief chat. He was not convinced that I was actually seeing the clouds he was eager for me to see. We stood in our different places looking into the sky at our clouds. Me convinced we were looking at the same clouds. He was less convinced and so moved to my location. Not those – these and we moved to where he had been standing. I could now see that we had been looking at different cloud formations. So now, standing together, looking from the same perspective we were observing the same clouds.
It was such a reminder how easy it is to get caught up in our own view, our own perspective. How we position ourselves literally and metaphorically – stand our ground on views and opinions. Sometimes unwilling to give ground and move our position for whatever reason. Gaining a new perspective is quite simple really. How prepared are we to move from our position – to give a little bit and move toward another position to potentially gain new insight, new ideas and a whole new perspective. What are we prepared to let go of, that will open our world to new possibilities, and cloud formations?