I stand close...(p.28)

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“Focusing too long on mostly self creates the greatest suffering.”

-Tony Robbins

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This week I have realized that I stand close, sometimes too close.

I stand close to things I am photographing, and I stand close to what’s on my mind, good or not so-good.

I seem to draw into what’s at hand. If I am photographing, I keep inching closer and closer until it fills my frame.

When something’s on my mind, I focus on it and will study it until I know it from every angle.

This can be helpful to a point, but the time I have spent gathering, I miss everything else.

My blinders keep me looking in only one direction.

What if I widened my view? How would that work?

I think it’s like looking down from an airplane and seeing a beautiful moonlit city, with windows warmly lit, sprinkled across the sky, and streets winding their way through.

I see the city versus my front door.

My experiences are ant-sized in this world.

They are beautiful, challenging, and mine, but I am not the only one having them.

There are billions of people in this world whose lives parallel mine. They have good and bad days. They have miracles and sadness.

We are not alone.

Our experiences are not unique.

Is it just me…this feels good.

I am unsure how to live more from a world perspective, but there must be a way.

I feel closest from an airplane’s view.

Us instead of I.

From here, my experiences are richer, and my challenges soften.

Let me turn my attention outward.

Let me sit by the window, not the aisle.

Let me fill my camera’s frame with the city, not just my front door.

Let me not focus entirely on my own experiences and reach my hand out.

Let me not stand too close.

Have a beautiful week. ❤️