Today I dedicate this #amazingnature post to mountains and I wish to speak about perspective.

Mountains

• The majestic edifices that resulted from continents colliding together to create great mountains like the Rocky Mountains in the USA or the Himalaya Mountains in Asia.
• Or huge volcanoes growing from the ocean floor.
• I think they are beautiful, and love photographing them like the mountain below.
• But they also teach us perspective.

Mountains make me feel small

• Mountains make me feel like a flea on a dog.
• I once was hiking on a mountain, climbing toward the summit and my friends kept remarking how we were getting closer to the mountain, as if it was the pointed raised area of rock and stone a mile away.
• But in actuality we were already on the mountain, but it was so big we didn’t realize it.
• The mountain is tall and steep, but the mountain slopes upward so slowly we didn’t notice the change in altitude until we look down, and realize how far above the sea we are..
• We were truly were like fleas on the back of a dog, looking up at the head, and saying: There’s the Dog!
• When in reality, we were already on the dog.
• We were experiencing perspective.

Perspective

• Perspective is a funny thing. Every one talks about how important it is, but few really grasp it’s importance in our daily lives.
• We have all heard the story of the five blind men describing an elephant based on the part they could each feel.
  One felt a long tube like trunk, another felt it’s long hard tusks, another it’s great , soft, flat side, and yet another only it’s tail.
• Yet each was sure that they were accurately describing the elephant, and thought the others were wrong.

The world is like a mountain

• It is flat, it is hilly, it is close to the ocean, and it is far from the sea.
• It is hot and dry, cool and wet, and hard and frigid.
• It is both covered by grass, trees, sand, snow and water.

How can all these be true?

• It all depends on where you are, and what part of the world your touching.
• The worlds problems are also like the world.
• Depending on where you are, they look, sound and feel different.
• So let’s all learn from the mountains and the five blind men; we can only see the portion of the problem right in front of us.
• But problems have front ends, backends, sides and undersides.
• And to solve problems we need to see all sides.

I hope you enjoy this mountain. And that you think of it next time your in a conflict, and maybe you will remember you can usually only see one side.

@shortsegments