A Change In Perspective

To me, that's one of the most of the important things a person can do for themselves. Change their perspective that is. It's funny how we get so caught up in the day to day issues that fill our lives that we can't see the forest for the trees.

Most of the time, it's just a matter of taking a "fresh" look at something, rather than continuing with an old train of thought.

A friend of mine uses this phrase when he wants to remind people that their problems are small on the big scale of things: "Remember... there are 6 billion people in China who don't even know your name." It's a coaching thing... you may not understand that one, but I think it's hilarious.

All of this has very little to do with why I was compelled to write this blog though. You see, our family has recently had our perspective changed slightly. Less than a year ago, we were nervous and scared, and wondering if we could actually be good parents.

Now, after nearly 8 months, we've had some valuable experience and have a 8 of our friends and family who have just had babies or are expecting this summer.

We've gone from the people asking advice of everyone, to the people being asked!! Kind of scary, because we really don't know what we're doing!! We just follow the books we read.

My overall point to this is about perspective. I've blogged a lot about my buddy telling me that I just "won't understand having a baby until [I] have one." And that's were I'm leading with my meandering thoughts here.

As a parent, there is an unspoken language amongst other parents. The knowing looks, the compassionate smile.

The other night, Beck and I were walking with Charlie up to our grocery store. On the way, we passed a young Dad coming out of Subway. He was pushing his son (probably 6 months). His son was hanging over the side of the stroller looking at the ground, for what reason, nobody knew. The Dad looked up at us as we passed each other, shrugged his shoulders and rolled his eyes with a smile. No words were spoken, but we all COMPLETELY understood each other.

An entire conversation had just taken place, with NO words uttered. This is my point (finally). We would never have related to this scene 9 months ago, and now we have something in common with a whole world of families out there that we never knew.

Just a little change in perspective.