A “Bird’s Eye” View
September 29, 2019
migrating birds—
fields of pampas grass
show the way
~Kristen Deming
I love hearing the geese and cranes as they start their migration south. This haiku reminds me that sometimes I need to have a “bird’s eye” view of things to move forward. When I’m intensely engaged or focused on something, I get caught up in the details. I agonize over and analyze every step I take. Forward progress stalls and I remain bogged down in uncertainty or unrealistic expectations I place on myself.
Sometimes the “right” solution is just to make a decision. Taking the larger view that any reasonable step gives me better information to make the next one helps me step back from all the details to see patterns and similarities. It also helps me to see failure as an option and learning opportunity. Failing at something does not mean that I personally am a failure. Making mistakes is human, and offering myself the grace to fail allows that forward movement.
I need to have goals that draw me forward and signposts that I’ve reached those goals. But I also need to be open to new ways of doing and seeing things. I need to soar above the nit picky details of my moment-to-moment existence to see my place in the whole fabric of life and have a sense of where I’m going.