Becoming a Bigger Picture Person

I can see cleaaaaarly now, the rain is gone. I can see all obstacles in my way!

Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration. But I have to rejoice when I encounter some new perspective. It’s one of those situations when people can tell you the same thing over and over, and you think you’re taking their advice, but the truth is that until you are fully submerged in the experience, you don’t even know what they’re talking about.

I have never in my life been a “bigger picture” person. I deal in instances and particulars and I can only see what’s just past the end of my nose, if even that. I have tried, and I have failed.

But I have learned a lot recently about taking a step back. Distancing myself from the intensity (or perceived intensity) of my own life and learning how to watch and breathe in silence has made all the difference.

Instead of bemoaning the here and now, I can see where I’m going and why. I can see how I have to deal with the temporary in order to achieve the permanent. I don’t mind that there isn’t much going on now, because I know that in a few months, my life will be back to being overfilled.

Instead of being down and out about the slumps and the tides going out, I am learning to appreciate them. They aren’t bad times, they are just the natural comings and goings that all things follow the course of.

And in the course of stepping back I see it all. I see the why’s and there wherefore’s. I see what’s coming and what’s going. And I know that while this may be a passing experience and I may return to the darkness of not-knowing, it is a valuable experience nonetheless. Because now, even when I can’t see the road ahead, I can at least be confident that there is one.