A good friend of mine recently retired and moved to Florida. Every so often, he sends me random photos of beautiful sunrises taken at the beach. Of course, I am completely jealous as these texts typically arrive when I am at my office headed to a meeting or on a call. However, as I was driving to work this morning, I saw the most spectacular sunrise. The sky was blue with swirls of translucent orange light. The sun was peeking over the horizon sending its rays into a gathering of wispy clouds. They shimmered and danced with an iridescent glow creating a brilliant silver lining around each one of them. It was quite spectacular. Even if viewed from the passing lane on I-75 headed south to Atlanta.
What I realized at that moment, however, is that we all look at the same sky, no matter where we are on the Earth. We can all look up at any moment and find inspiration. It reminded me of a favorite quote of mine by Oscar Wilde, “We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars.”
I translate that to mean that we all find ourselves in different situations. We all have our own challenges and life issues. And we all react differently to our circumstances. But we all have the opportunity to look at the stars, to see things in a positive light, regardless of the adversity life has thrown our way.
Perhaps you will read this and think, that’s all good and well but my situation is different. I have had some pretty hard knocks and I just can’t see the world that way. Let me say this, for a very long time I let my past circumstances rule my future. I spent my time feeling victimized. I felt that life simply was not fair and that someone, I’m not sure who, owed me an apology.
Here’s the thing, life treats all of us unfairly. We all make choices we regret, and we all suffer from things in which we had little or no choice about. In my life, I have found that the greater the adversity, the greater the opportunity to make changes and get better.
The transition to viewing the stars is not always easy for us, myself included. It takes practice and patience and a true willingness to want to see things from a positive vantage point. My point is this: things are going to happen that we don’t like. But ultimately, we have the choice about how we will go about handling these situations. We can be a victim of our surroundings or a catalyst for change.
Les Brown said, “If I can look up, I can get up.” For me, looking up meant viewing myself as someone who was worthy, with a voice and a vision for my future. Getting up meant that I would no longer see myself as the victim but as a survivor. It meant that I would get up do the hard things that I never felt strong enough to do. And, that I would make a commitment to myself to be better and more driven to change the world around me.
So, I challenge you to look up at the stars, no matter where you are and envision your life as more than the current set of challenges that you face. To put forth an effort toward seeing things from a new perspective and toward living your best life. And to remember this quote from Wayne Dyer, “When you change what you look at, what you look at changes.”
Photo courtesy Pixabay/Nikiko