Perspective

Perspective: the state of one's ideas, the facts known to one.  Our perspective changes depending on our age and circumstances.  My husband is a chiropractor.  When he first started his practice, he would often come home and talk about how badly his patients complained about their back pain.  He thought many of them were just exaggerating.  One year, on Mothers' Day (of all days), when our children were young and quite a handful, he was in our backyard digging up a tree.  He pulled something in his back and couldn't even move.  He was confined to his bed for the rest of the day, and then struggled with severe back pain for the next several months while he got treatment.  He moaned and complained a lot!  It was during those painful few months that his perspective changed.  He gained an understanding of his patients' pain.  After this experience, he never complained about or judged his patients again.  In fact, the whole experience changed the type of doctor he is.  He now has empathy and understanding.  I admire him for changing.  Often times in life, we are allowed to have experiences just like this, but our behavior remains the same.