Taking a different view

We sometimes forget how in charge we are of our destiny; the way our relationships develop or unfold, actions, moments - we do get to choose.

Yet often that awareness is hiding in the wings and it takes conscious endeavour to tune into what is happening in any given moment to become aware of the choices we have and ultimately which path to take.

It means conscious choice - learning to identify differently with a struggle or challenge so that it doesn’t increase its hold over us. It means altering our perspective to take a different view, or to pause and breathe before making a decision that may impact us negatively.

A poem that talks to this well.

What turn may you need to make today or this week? You can use your reflective practice to support this activity - journal any reflections in this poem that speak to you.

Who Turns

Who turns this into that? Sound into noise?
Aroma into odor? Taste into pleasure or disgust?
Who turns yes into no? Grace into unkindness?
Who turns the present into the past? Who turns the now into the not-now?
As-it-is into as-it-should-be?
Silence into boredom? Stillness into restlessness?
The ordinary into the menial?
Who turns pain into suffering? Change into loss?
Grief into woe? Woe into the story of your life?
Who turns stuff into sentiment? Desire into craving?
Acceptance into aversion?
Peace into war? Us into them?
Who turns life into labor? Time into toil?
Enough into not-enough?
Who turns why into why not?
Who turns delusion into enlightenment?
Who thinks? Who feels? Who senses?
Who turns?
All practice is the practice of making a turn in a different
Direction.

By: Karen Maezen Miller