{"id":7886,"date":"2017-09-12T09:29:00","date_gmt":"2017-09-12T13:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=7886"},"modified":"2017-09-12T09:29:00","modified_gmt":"2017-09-12T13:29:00","slug":"perspective-after-irma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=7886","title":{"rendered":"perspective… after Irma…"},"content":{"rendered":"

perspective<\/strong> |p\u0259r\u02c8spektiv|
\n– n.-<\/em>
\n\u2014 true understanding of the relative importance of things; a sense of proportion.<\/em><\/p>\n

One the many things I frequently ponder is whether my perspective is solid or skewed. And if my perspective is skewed, what makes it that way? What has contributed to me being \u201coff\u201d? \u2026 especially when perhaps via passion, opinion, or extenuating circumstance, I can\u2019t see it.<\/p>\n

While my intent is never to be callous nor cruel, my strong sense is that each of us is capable of possessing either angle. Each of us can possess a solid or skewed perspective, and each of us is capable of not knowing it.<\/p>\n

Do we have a true understanding of the relative importance of things? Especially, for example\u2026<\/p>\n

When we are shaken\u2026
\nWhen we are shocked\u2026
\nWhen we are fearful\u2026
\nWhen we are wronged\u2026
\nWhen we are mad\u2026
\nWhen we are hurt\u2026
\nWhen life is tough\u2026<\/p>\n

When any of those valid emotions becomes most prominent within us, do we understand the importance of what we feel or what we\u2019re going through in relation to all else? \u2026 in relation to all others? Or does what we feel rise to the top, so-to-speak? Does what we are going through become the absolute most important and everyone else should so obviously get that, too?<\/p>\n

Six weeks ago, my family moved to Florida. Two days ago, we found ourselves in the path of one curvaceous, stormy woman named \u201cIrma.\u201d As a brand new Florida resident, I must say, I wasn\u2019t exactly thrilled that Hurricane Irma would be the one to welcome us with the widest of arms. Sunday night was awful.<\/p>\n

The winds howled; the dog barked; and trees and debris went continuously airborne outside. For ten hours, we huddled underneath a dining room table, topped by a mattress, adjacent to two inside walls, which were the two walls that seemingly shook the least. At one point on the constant hurricane TV coverage (and I do mean \u201cconstant\u201d),<\/em> the weatherman said, \u201cEveryone in the viewing area should just assume there\u2019s a tornado near them right now!\u201d It was serious and potentially severe.<\/p>\n

And so we huddled. It was a tough experience accompanied by tough emotions.<\/p>\n

We were not, however, the only ones to huddle. We were not the only ones going through a hurricane. We were also not the ones to face the worst of Irma\u2019s wrath, and we were certainly not the only ones to ever experience tough circumstances.<\/p>\n

One of the many things the Intramuralist increasingly realizes is that we all experience tough things; the tough things come via varied circumstance \u2014 things from which we can each learn \u2014 but we\u2019d be wiser to glean the available wisdom than to instead spend more time and energy comparing ourselves to others, attempting to discern who has it worst. There will always be someone who has it harder than we\u2026 regardless of who actually experiences a hurricane.<\/p>\n

Some respected friends in Irma\u2019s path, with solid perspective, chimed in:<\/p>\n

\u201cWinds still howling, not sure of outside damage, but we never lost power and we never lost hope.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cFeeling overwhelmingly grateful for those who stayed in contact with me, assisted me, sheltered me, and most importantly made laugh during these past few days.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIn times of crisis, we rise and help each other.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cOur prayers remain stronger than Irma.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cMade it thru Irma. Made it through cancer. Irma doesn’t come close. Perspective.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Amen.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s amazing how encouraging solid perspective can be.<\/p>\n

Respectfully\u2026
\nAR<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

{Photo by Lily Lvnatikk<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a>}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

perspective |p\u0259r\u02c8spektiv| – n.- \u2014 true understanding of the relative importance of things; a sense of proportion. One the many things I frequently ponder is whether my perspective is solid or skewed. And if my perspective is skewed, what makes it that way? What has contributed to me being \u201coff\u201d? \u2026 especially when perhaps via … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “perspective… after Irma…”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,10],"tags":[642],"class_list":["post-7886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-issue","category-daily-life","tag-hurricane-irma"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7886"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7890,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7886\/revisions\/7890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}