laurabethanyb
Have you ever tried to look out a stained-glass window? If the glass has much age in it, as it often does, not only are you seeing the world through colored filters, but also through the rippled distortions of the pane from where the barely solid glass has succumbed to the slow effect of gravity. Anything you see on the other side of the window has to be reinterpreted with the distortions in mind, leaving us with more of an impression than an accurate image.
Over time, I have come to accept all that I see in the world – other people, creation, even the Divine – are only impressions viewed through the lens of Self. Every experience, every lesson, every season passed, every storm weathered acts, all the things that make me uniquely me, for better or for worse, come together and act like gravity on that lens, distorting the shapes and hues I perceive around me.
If I have any hope of sharing a common sense of reality with others, I have to do the hard work of decoding that view. That involves both celebrating and correcting for the uniqueness of my lens.
I write a good bit about myself to the extent that I wrestle with being too “self-centered,” striving for a healthy balance in my reflections. I share my stories in songs and in art – anywhere and anytime anyone will make space for them. The reason is simple: I want to share life with others on this human journey and to do that, we need to calibrate our lenses to a common focal point. I can’t even begin to recall how many friendships I’ve lost and arguments I’ve endured due to a failure to allow for all the unique perspectives in a room.
As I take on this project of writing again on a more consistent basis, I will be writing about that lens, sharing what I have learned (and am learning) through my efforts to understand how I can simply “be” and what that means about how I see the world.
It is among my deepest desires to meet others through their own lenses along the way.