I have a friend with an ever surprising way of looking at the world. She’s a visual thinker and she sees everything in 3-d in a way most people don’t. She doesn’t live in the past or really the future, she is all about the ‘now’ and how things work, how they interact, and how people interact with everything. She’s great at organizing closets because she thinks spacially. She’s terrific in crowds because she doesn’t just think about her front and where she’s going, but also her back and her sides and she can see the patterns of flow so can navigate quickly where others are just stuck.
This way of seeing the world can be frustrating because she doesn’t understand why other people ‘don’t get it’ and get stuck where she sees an easy path through the situation. And sometimes I agree. People spend SOOOOOOOOOO much time looking right in front of them, looking down at their own feet, their own issues, their own needs, that they don’t look up to see the rest of the crowd, they don’t see the bigger picture, they don’t see the influences all around them. It keeps them from being able to navigate effectively through their lives because they can’t see what is hitting them from behind or running into them broadside.
I don’t mean that people should become Zen or start meditating so they can be accepting and unattached to what goes on around them. What I mean is more practical. If you are in a grocery store and you need to stop to check something in the cart or in your purse, pull over out-of-the-way of others, don’t stop in the middle of the front doors blocking the way for the 7 people behind you. See what you are affecting and what is affecting you. If the attitude of a friend suddenly changes, look and ask them gently why. If your significant other is frustrated or unhappy, look beyond yourself to the bigger picture of the situation and see what can be done, even if it’s just to listen. Use the eye’s in the back of your head. If Mom’s can use them to see what you are doing, you should be able to use them to see what is going on around you.
