The dark morning was cold; my finger tips were actually icy as I walked down the street. My dogs pulled at the leashes but on the eastern horizon, I saw the deep blue begin to lighten. I glanced to see if I could still see the North Star and the Big Dipper in the emerging dawn.
What happened next is my challenge and goal every day: I shifted my perspective. When I looked for the Dipper, it was upside down. Of course, I know that the stars move across the sky, but I thought they just moved. Suddenly, I got a clear idea of how the constellations rotate around the North Star. Wow! that was a new perspective for me. I actually understood that concept. In the midst of that understanding—while I was mentally circling constellations around—a shooting star sailed silently through my peripheral vision. Did I really see that or was it my imagination? The truth didn’t matter; I smiled.
I am not sure how I get perspective shifts. I love those surprises. My challenge daily is to open myself to such shifts. How do my eyes and mind make the witch turn into the young lady? How does that flat image shift into a completely different 3-D picture if I stare cross-eyed long enough? How do I see silence in the crowded moments of my classroom? Can I sit on that bale of hay or listen like a cow?
I know I am capable of shifting the way I see and feel. I can change my initial anger at a student to understanding. I can realize several solutions to a problem depending on my point of view. I am challenged now by Radical Presence to keep quiet much more than [I] have ever imagined possible, and by listening more astutely than [I] have before, even [I] have listened long and hard” (p.2). I am hoping that the perspective will hit me from somewhere outside my peripheral vision. I believe it will.
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