Change Your Perspective to See the View From the Top

The sun was bright and the sky was clear, but my windows were filthy. So, given that information, you might be able to draw the logical conclusion that the sun’s radiating, healing rays were distorted. In their place, a tinge of brown was cast against the sky. 

From my window, it was dismal, dreary, and depressing. Yet, if I were to change my position and choose to look out a different window, it may possibly be clearer, brighter, and sunnier.

Life is like that. It can be beautiful, free of the overcast brown scattered about our lives. And yet, doesn’t it really depend on which window we choose to look out of?  

Those of us with Parkinson’s have aches and pains that we battle every day. We experience financial burdens due to all our medical expenses and persistent anxiety that ceaselessly rages within. Relational issues become infected because of our disease, and others don’t know how to relate or respond to us.

However, we can choose to see our circumstances as opportunities for growth. Opportunities that can make us wiser and stronger. They can help us to become filled with compassion because of our own personal struggles and the experiences that we have been through. The windows will become clearer, the sky bluer.  

Or, we can see our circumstances as disturbances and threats to our peace and our well-being. They can become obstacles and mountains that we have no energy or desire to climb. When this happens, we’re looking through our dirty windows. There appears to be a film of dirt and debris, and the sky appears to be tinted in browns.

In large and small cities alike, people may call this smog or pollution. Pollution of the mind is a contaminated way of thinking, a littered way of how we tend to look at things. Just as environmental pollution is harmful to our health, looking at life through dirty windows warps our view of the world outside of us.

Life is hard. That is an indisputable fact. It throws obstacles at us we don’t want to face. It hands us aches and pains we’d rather not feel. Burdens we think we can’t bear and relational distresses that we’d prefer to avoid. They are all a part of life. 

However, no matter what aches and pains we feel, if we strive to be positive and not negative, we will have a greater chance of getting up the mountains we must climb.

Yes, it hurts. You may want to give up. You may want to quit. But if you do quit, you will never see the view that was waiting for you at the top. The view of how you were given enough strength to carry the burdens that you bore at every twist and turn. How your relationships were deepened because you chose to walk the journey together instead of apart. How you have grown.

I think I am going upstairs to look through a cleaner window. Enough of these dirty windows. Or better yet, I’m going outside to get a much better view. The view from the top.

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Note: Parkinson’s News Today is strictly a news and information website about the disease. It does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or another qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website. The opinions expressed in this column are not those of Parkinson’s News Today or its parent company, Bionews, and are intended to spark discussion about issues pertaining to Parkinson’s disease.