There is more than one Perspective
Luna and I were out on a walk through our neighborhood. As we have done many times, we decided to walk around the pond and enjoy the views. Around the back end of the pond we see our friend the great blue heron. On many of our previous walks we have seen him, and Luna has sat patiently watching him on the side of the pond. Today was different. As I was watching this beautiful bird, Luna starts to growl. Luna rarely growls. She is a german shepherd, and thus is protective of me, but rarely does she need to growl. Today the hairs on her neck were up, her posture was attack mode, and she was using her “big girl bark.” The heron was startled and flew off in a beautiful display. Luna continued on alert. At this point I tell her to be quiet, and that we don’t scare birds. She didn’t listen. At this point I am frustrated. Luna is not listening to me, and this beautiful bird had left. It was at this time I slowed myself down and looked at Luna. Her gaze was not on the bird. Luna saw a very large snake in our path. The whole time Luna had been trying to alert me to the snake, but my gaze was on the bird. I was so fixated on my Perspective, that I had failed to even be open to hers. Thankfully the snake wanted nothing to do with Luna and had already started to move out of our path. I leaned over, hugged her, and told her that she was a good girl.
Luna and I had two different views this morning. We both wanted the other to see the world from our perspective. Neither of our views were delusional, in other words we saw the world for how it actually was from our points of view.
On social media I see many of my friends and family arguing about politics. All of them believe they are right. Like Luna, some are warning of danger. Others are more focused on seeing the beauty around them. We need both.
Lunas defiance was out of love for me. My frustration was also out of love for her.
Perhaps if we all focused on the underlying love, there would be less frustration. If you turn on the TV or social media you will be told to look at the differences, and to fear them. Our challenge is to look deeper. Where is the love?
Jesus was asked what is the main thing? What is the most important thing to learn?
His response was “to love.”
He didn’t say “make them agree.” Nor did he say, “protect them from their own stupidity.”
Love.