...mountains with a view

It’s incredible how each and every context enables us to experience a different perspective. As individuals it is often said that going away for a while, alone, will enable us to see things afresh, much akin to the phrase ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’.

So what is it that when we are close to something, so absorbed and unable to extract ourselves, that we cannot see what is in front of us?

Maybe it’s like the inability to read text when the copy is too near to our eyes, everything loses focus and we feel the need to push it away. Or the confusion that can come when journeying at a railway station, so many people, so much noise, information, choices & decisions.

Stepping back, taking time to reflect is often considered wise when wanting a different perspective but where you base that stepping back from can clearly influence the outcome.

For example, being in an aeroplane removes you entirely from any connection with the world. For those hours and moments you are not part of life on earth. You can see life going on in miniscule below, the movement of cars & people, the changing terrain and the weather patterns all happening in a disconnected way allowing you to have a voyeuristic perspective. To me it almost feels like you could have the ability to ‘click & drag’ the scene, move it around, change it at will – simply because I feel so removed from what I am seeing. It certainly gives me a different perspective but not one that I can rationally identify with – it feels completely surreal.

You might therefore think that being on one of the world’s highest mountain ranges, isolated and inaccessible might produce a similar feeling. However for me, I am very much connected to the earth in these surroundings.  Although I might feel a sense of awe of creation and the relative insignificance of myself within that space, mountains do give me the ability to know I am part of creation. That I am here for a time such as this and being alone in the mountains really enables me to connect &  feel that. For me being alone and quiet is important because experiencing such awesomeness with another makes me shift to a perspective where I analyse the view rather than sense it.

Jesus did the same many times during his ministry – when the acceptable norm would have been to remain in that place, surrounded by followers who demanded his attention, miracles and prayers. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus needed to step back and find the true perspective of all that He had been created and called to be.

So for me, maybe the act of stepping back, removing myself and being further away – helps me gain my ‘true’ perspective.