Perspective

To love. 

To be loved.

To never forget your own insignificance. 

To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. 

To seek joy in the saddest places. 

To pursue beauty to its lair. 

To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. 

To respect strength, never power.

Above all, to watch ... To try and understand ... To never look away. 

And never, never, to forget. 

                                                   — Arundhati Roy

I ran across this while browsing one evening. I run into a lot of heavy, silly, sweet and very deep quotes. The web is chalk full of them. But for some reason that I can't explain this one was 'real' to me. It was meaningful and I couldn't just click over to the next page. I stopped and physically wrote it down so as not to forget it.

You see, as a single mother of four life can be rather daunting... Overwhelming even and quite honestly I've found myself completely terrified at times. I find myself often in need of perspective. It's so easy to get buried in all the demands of jobs, kids, homework, housework, bills, deadlines, friends, relationships, teachers and then there is the very pitiful amount of time I actually spend trying to nurture my relationship with God and myself. I've actually had the hair brained notion that perhaps I could train for and run my first half marathon... silly me.


The reason this was so poignant for me I think was because it gave me the gift of perspective. In the midst of all the shuffling and running and stressing I was forced to stop and drink in fresh perspective. I'm loved. I have dozens of people that I get to love. My worries are insignificant in the grand scheme of things.






Anyway, I wanted to share it with all of you. I hope it can do something similar for you.