The Girl and The Eagle

As she sat there in her bedroom, looking out over the vast deep blue ocean, she began to cry. She cried for some time. She allowed herself this moment to let it all in. She let her thoughts and feelings carry her away, far away, wherever they wanted to go, no matter how scary the journey, she trusted she’d find her way back.

Gradually, the ocean became a mirage, her thoughts splayed out in front of her, seeing everything she was feeling. It scared her for some time, and so she wept, she sobbed with all her heart.

Some time passed until gradually the mirage turned into something different. She no longer saw the storm of thoughts with waves crashing against what felt like her heart. It took her a moment, but as she wiped away her tears, she began to notice a stillness. The ocean seemed to suddenly be at peace, and the waves no longer hurt her. She began to feel a peace in her heart and her tears began to slow, her sobs turned to deep breaths, and slowly her breathing returned to normal and her eyes began to dry.

She does not know how much time has passed, and she doesn’t care, she feels grateful, at ease, and so begins to look around her. Coming out of her trance and returning to what feels like reality, she looks up and notices an eagle flying high above her. She marvels at how at ease the bird seems, how free; soaring high, smoothly and calmly. ‘Oh how his view must be so different from up there’ she thinks. ‘How lucky he is to not have to be stuck down here, if only he knew what I know, and felt what I’m feeling. I wonder if he is grateful for that high view of the world that allows him to see so clearly and stay away from all the troubles we suffer’.

Suddenly, she realises she is not in that reality to which she thought she had returned. The bird replies to her. As shocked as she is, and as much as she wants to pull away and return to reality, something is urging her on, urging her to not let go of the connection she has just discovered.

‘My dear, I see all that you see, I feel all that you feel, I just see it from a different perspective. I view the world from up here but I am no less a part of it. I feel no less of what you feel. I just have a different backdrop of which to view it. After all, isnt that was perspective is all about? The way in which you view the world, against your understanding of it, your knowledge and your memories? You have a perspective of things based on what you know. Just as I do. I however, am able to fly closer to the sun, so I always know it is there, I fly through the clouds so I know when the rain is coming, yet I also always know it will leave again and the sun will return, to your point of view. This does not mean I feel the rain any less. It does not mean the clouds do not block the sun for me as they do you. I just have the ability to rise above them. I have a perspective of the world that is different to yours and I am able to put things into a different perspective because I have seen more.

The beautiful and the ugly; the kind and the nasty; the optimist and the pessimist; hurt and love; hard times and beautiful times; suffering and thriving. I have seen it all in the eyes of the many, and I can assure you, neither had anything to do with the life the person had, the material possessions they owned, the size of the house they lived in, their status, their health, their ability. No. None of that mattered. It was their perspective.’

‘But what do you mean’ cried out the girl. ‘I can only see what I see, and feel what I feel, how can I know anything different than what I know.’

‘Because you are looking at it all from your point of view. Perspective, is how one thing is presented or viewed in relation to another.’

‘So you’re saying that if I am able to view something – say the situation which I am sad about – in relation to another situation, I may no longer feel sad about it or have to feel these feelings?’

‘No my dear, you cannot escape your feelings. Feelings are things that make you human, that help you to experience life, to enjoy the journey, if you did not feel, what would be the point in living.’

‘But I hate those feelings, I HATE feeling like that. I want it to go away!’

‘If you did not experience sadness, how would you know what happiness felt like? If you did not know hurt how would you know love? If you did not know hardship how would you experience joy?’

‘I guess that makes sense’ she said, bowing her head as she contemplated life. ‘But what does perspective have to do with that’.

‘Because perspective is how you manage those feelings going forward. Perspective is how you turn a situation from negative, scary and awful, to an opportunity for something great, something different, a challenge, something new. There is always a chance to see the good in a situation, and to change your perspective of it. You just have to look at it relatively.’

‘Okay, so, if I take the thing I’m sad about, and I look at it relative to what someone else is dealing with for example, or something I have dealt with before, I could try and see how I’m better off than before or than someone else and be grateful for it?’

‘That’s it! You got it… And I hadn’t even gotten to the importance of gratitude yet!’

‘And if I look at my situation, you’re saying I can find ways to see the positive in it, if I look at it through a different perspective – other than say frustration, fear or sadness – and I can find the good in it? I can find ways to make it a good experience?’

‘Yes my dear, that’s exactly what I’m saying.’