It’s Saturday morning, my jumbo-sized coffee is sitting right in front of me, and once again I find myself unwinding after a harried whirlwind of a week! I started to think about perspective, and how good it is to step back from a situation and view it from a different vantage point. This often brings clarity to our circumstances, and truly assists us in finding the right answers to problems when we aren’t certain how to solve them.
I thought the above picture would be a terrific example of what I am talking about. I spend a lot of time in downtown Chicago; and yet, I don’t usually get to ‘see’ it from a perspective other than the street (or train) level I am viewing at any given time. I took this picture all the way in Evanston, Illinois. Chicago is in the distance (about 12 miles/19km); it looks closer than that, doesn’t it? But I think you get the idea; from this vantage point Chicago appears much different from when I’m in the ‘thick of things’ traipsing around the downtown area. The same goes for any situation we find ourselves embroiled in and seemingly unable to discover answers to our dilemma.
Here is what I am proposing: let’s do an “Evanston to Chicago” approach by looking at things from a big picture perspective next time we find ourselves without a solution to our quandary. Perhaps by looking at it in this way we can find out what was in front of us all along. It’s worth a try, don’t you think? I am about to ‘look’ at Chicago in an entirely different manner from hereon in! This photo will be my reminder not to get so embroiled in the minuscule of the moment that I miss the entire ‘skyline’ of my predicament!
The Chicago Files 