The World Through a Glass Darkly

We lose perspective too often. I know that in months passed I have spent my entire day studying, doing things with the computer, eating, and talking. All indoors, cooped up and looking at the world through windows. It's just not right! We humans were created in a garden, we were meant to be outside! In our modern culture it is feasible that a person could be born, get an education, get a job, make a nice little home and raise children all inside, the whole time. Granted, they'd be lacking a tan, but it could be possible from the cultural (if not the biological) standpoint.

Buildings have become for us more than shelters from the wind and rain: they have become the places where we do everything. No more eating "by the sweat of one's brow", more like the sweat of one's palms while typing feverishly on the computer keyboard. It's just not the same.

And you know how I can be pretty sure we're missing the boat by staying inside all of the time? Because when I go for my morning walk (a new habit) I come back and life looks a little different, in a good way. When I step out my back door into the early sunshine, into birdsong, into the life that is going on all around me: vehicles on the highway, dogs barking, hunter's gunshots, laughter from the neighbor's house, it reminds me that I'm not as isolated as I might think. It's easy to blow your problems all out of proportion and feel dreadfully lonesome when you're dealing with bad hair in front of your dirty bathroom mirror, trying to remember the thousand-and-one things you have on your to-do list today, knowing that enjoying the sunshine won't be one of them.

But when you see and hear the joys and woes of others, simply by stepping out of your domicile for a little moment (my walk is only 15 minutes and it does me a world of good), it puts thinks back in proportion. My grass isn't as tall as the neighbor's grass. My dog barks louder than I thought. I'm huffing and puffing, maybe I should exercise more. I'm glad that this tree is shaped so oddly. And suddenly...the world is a little more manageable.   

Tata for Now,

Abby

Picture by This Person.

Creative Commons.