Perspective is personal.  It belongs to you, you own it, and no one can take it away from you.  It resides in you, it’s where you come from, it’s how you react, it’s all about you baby.

That said do you even know what yours is?  Can you explain your perspective?  Are you a glass half full or a glass half empty kind of individual?  Do you reflect or react?  Are you fearful or fearless?  Does it even matter to you?

I feel like this is one of those words and concepts George Carlin would have loved:  let’s put it in perspective, from my perspective, keep things in perspective, you get the picture it’s one of those things that everybody has and no one can explain.

It’s a moving target, literally.  Perspective is always changing, it’s based on where you’ve been, what you’ve experienced or never experienced, how you’ve been treated and how you treat, it is the ultimate oxymoron.

Perspective is a snapshot in time.  It’s where you stand at any given moment, it’s how you feel, what you know and what excites you.  You don’t always feel the same, your knowledge is always increasing sometimes in a positive way sometimes in a negative way.  Ever find yourself saying, “if I knew then what I know now”?  Therein lies perspective.

What does excite you?  These days I’m excited about photography again (http://www.flickr.com/photos/95430220@N06/).  I’m excited about writing.  I’m excited about ordinary things that somehow now seem very special.  Cooking excites me, walking excites me, dancing excites me…so many things excite me these days and my perspective reflects that excitement.  I love hauling my butt out of bed each day, that wasn’t always the case and that was a very different perspective.

Someone said to me recently I’m afraid to say it out loud when texting about someone’s illness.  I felt like that when my friend Cookie was sick.  I felt as if it was a jinx that would somehow do him more harm than good.  What I learned was to say it out loud puts light on it and healing comes from the light not from the darkness.  My perspective changed.  I like things in the light now.

Ironically my home isn’t filled with light but I love it.  I live in an evening home.  Some homes are day homes and others are evening homes apparently homes have perspective also.  I like the soft light from the lamps, I like that my office has big day light but my bedroom has low light.  I love the feeling of softened edges rather than sharp lines.  What you create comes from your perspective and what you have to work with.

“From where I stand” was a photo prompt from a recent photo treasure hunt I participated in that urged you to look down at your feet where ever you are at the moment and snap the shot.  There is a group on Flickr dedicated entirely to the concept of “from where I stand” and it is at once hysterical, heartwarming, dire and light hearted.  It truly captures (pun intended) the concept of perspective in that no matter where you are your perspective is with you.   And when you move to the next spot to capture the shot your perspective changes and then there you are caught up in your perspective again. I love the idea of perspective and I love that my perspective is ever changing.   I love that I have total control over the way I look at things because in the truest definition of the word perspective is a view.  I know like I know that I am working hard on my perspective and it is working hard on me.

When all is said and done what people will think of me, what people will remember about me will come from…

wait for it…

their own perspective.