THERE IS SO MUCH MORE TO WHO YOU ARE AND WHERE YOU ARE
At times, it can be challenging to view life as a journey, particularly when routines and responsibilities mark our existence. And just as not every landscape showcases visible mountains or valleys, the same can be said for our daily lives. However, if you take a moment to look at a map of the Earth, you'll notice that every patch of land possesses its own terrain and features that speak to its geological makeup. Even if these nuances are subtle, they still exist.
Likewise, a life that may not appear as a winding journey but rather feels fixed can be approached from a different perspective. Even amidst a routine so well-defined that it seems devoid of anything beyond it, you are free to zoom out. You are free to ask questions:
What has changed in my life compared to five years ago, even if in subtle ways? (Have you relocated? Did someone else's experiences deeply impact you? Have you undergone a shift in perspective?)
What do you envision being different in your life five years from now, even if subtly? (Do you aspire to change your work in some manner? Are you considering a move? Are you seeking to start anew or make progress with what you already possess?)
If you can answer these questions (or even just think about them for a few moments), it exemplifies the ability to zoom out and observe the terrain. It demonstrates that although everything may feel flat and uninteresting, it does not imply a lack of depth in your life.
Even in the desert, there are rich textures that are less prominent elsewhere.
In a dense forest, the flickering sunlight through the trees is difficult to replicate by the beach.
Even in cities and towns where seemingly unremarkable buildings dot the landscape, someone on the other side of the world has never seen your world as you see it now.
To you, it may be routine, but to them, it reveals aspects of the landscape that go unnoticed by you.
Even if you reside in a place known worldwide, such as Los Angeles or London, the truth remains that languages are spoken there that not everyone knows, and transportation systems are organized in unfamiliar ways to others, even though they are part of your everyday life.
The same holds true for smaller communities. There are many people from around the world who have never been precisely where you are, and they would see the city or town you’re in a completely different way.
This doesn’t mean that everything we experience is going to be filled with meaning for us just by observing, but just taking a moment to reflect on how to observe something in a different way might just be one part of something bigger: even when the days feel the same, there is more to where we are. And we are allowed to practice exploring how to move through the landscape we are in with new perspectives.
Though it may be hard to believe when we are immersed where we are, zooming out and adopting a bird's-eye view offers a different perspective. Asking ourselves questions about what has changed over the past five years and what will change in the next five years are starter questions that can allow us space to explore beyond what appears on the surface.
The good thing about a question is that it's a small way to create room for a new perspective. Of course, being able to hop on a plane, train, boat, or in a car to a new place will create room to see something in a new way, but we don't have to leave our physical location to spend a little bit of time thinking about where we are in a different way. Even the simple act of looking at an old photograph or an old journal entry from five years ago can remind us of what has changed. As we mentally travel back to that moment in time, amidst whatever feelings come up, what we leave that moment knowing is that we have been on a journey, moving through each day toward where we are right now.
There is so much more to who you are and where you are, and you are worthy of the time it takes to delve into the layers of landscape that are all around you.
More in this week's series called "A Journey Through It All", only with a subscription in the Storyteller App.
More tomorrow…
Sincerely,
Morgan Harper Nichols
@thestorytellerco
@morganharpernichols
