In a different light

Not long ago, John and I visited friends in Mesa, AZ, who took us on a tour of the beautiful Superstition mountains not far from where they live. It was a glorious sunny winter day, and the drive through the mountains was magnificent. At one point, we got out at an overlook, and took a little trail that wound to the edge of a bluff from which I took the pictures that I posted with this blog. What struck me as I reviewed them when I got home was that they were all taken from the same place, and during the same small time frame. Yet each picture was bathed in light of a different color. How did that happen?

This provoked me to ponder on the way we humans can see the very same thing in a different light than someone else. We can even see the same thing in a different light ourselves, if we adopt a different perspective or attitude towards what we are seeing. For example, a situation which may seem very troublesome and difficult, when seen in a different light, reveals itself as a marvelous revelation of important truths, or as an opportunity for growing in strength and wisdom. A person who seems to be a Big Problem, when seen in a different light, can be viewed as our best teacher. You get the picture!

These pictures also reminded me to be an observer of myself---of how I am looking at something, and in what light I am seeing it, and why. If someone else sees what I see in a very different light---that does not mean I am right and they are wrong. We just don't see something the same way. Should that bother me much?

A good spiritual exercise for me in this new year, I think, would be to see if I can see certain situations--especially rugged ones, like these mountains--in several ways, and become aware of what is coloring my viewpoints. That might be a challenge, but a worthy one.

What's your view about this?