forest & trees

millie shows me an eagle flying high.  it can see all the small things on the ground, but it is soaring high above them.  it's a very powerful picture.


"view your life from a broader perspective.  humans tend to get bogged down in the minutiae of your lives.  notice the small things, appreciate them for what they bring to your life, but don't get caught up in them."

I'm having a hard time reconciling this advice with the 'slow down and appreciate the gems in your life' advice.


"take time to *see* the gems around you, but also look at your life from a higher place -- notice how the small things fit in with everything else.  be engaged with your life and simultaneously able to see it from a distance."

she shows me a heavily wooded slope.  we zoom in on a tree, we can even see a bird on a branch, then our perspective shifts and we are looking at the whole forest.  she takes me back and forth between the two perspectives a few times... tree, forest, tree, forest.  then suddenly we are looking both at the tree AND the forest at the same time.


"see the parts of your life from a broader perspective, as part of the rich and varied tapestry of *everything*.  re-examine the true size and importance of things that bother or upset you.  they are not as large as they seem if you zoom out.  put them in perspective.  soar above them.  you may find that what bothered you yesterday is not so important today.  give it a try."

I practice this perspective thing she is talking about.  I look at my daily annoyances, then zoom out and look at the miracle of my life as a whole.  I do this several times, like she showed me with the trees, and then something shifts.  it gets easier, for one thing, and new connections become visible between people, animals, everything.  everyone and everything is connected, and the connections show up as gold strings, lines, pipes, leading from each being to everything around it.


"that's it, you've got it."

thank you, millie.