About this same time six years ago (yikes!) I shared this article. It’s worthy of repeating. It was called: Point of View Truths.

Several years ago I received a copy of the following story. It hit me with deep impact. Maybe it was because my own mother taught me at an early age that a great person always argued a point from the opposite side before casting an opinion, or maybe it’s just because it’s a fantastic story. At any rate, it’s worth sharing.

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Limited Vision
Four people were in a barn and each one had a knothole to look through. One looked to the east, one to the west, one to the south and one to the north.

The person looking to the east saw the sun come up and said, “The whole world is nothing but sunrises”

The person looking to the west said, “You are wrong, the whole world is nothing but sunsets.”

The person to the north who could see nothing but a haystack said, “You are both wrong, the entire world is nothing but hay.”

The fourth person looking to the south said, “I can’t understand how all of you can be so stupid. The world is nothing but bales of straw.”
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From his own viewpoint, each was right. But, obviously, each one’s viewpoint was limited by the size and direction of the knothole through which he was looking.

Get on top of the barn, look in all directions before casting your certainty on a matter. Know that your ideas may be right, but this does not necessarily make the other fellow’s wrong. He may be seeing the same wide, wonderful world through a different knothole.

Ever have that sinking feeling? So did this truck driver yesterday when he delivered a load of rock to mom’s yard.

He might have made it if he hadn’t stopped to make sure he wasn’t sinking too much. But those few moments gave those front tires enough time to sink to a point the back ones just couldn’t push them out. Even lightening the load by dumping the rock wasn’t enough.

For better reference on the level sunk, check out Taylor standing outside, and then inside the spot where that front tire was.

Now, the positive in this sunken tale is the good nature of people. Upon getting stuck, the driver asked if there were any neighbors that might have a tracker to provide the needed pull. After a few calls, my mom found a neighbor who willingly came to offer help. Leaving what they were doing, literally dropping everything to come to help in that moment. That is awesome to me.

Are we really any different? Too often, we take just a moment too long before action and find ourselves sunk. We think we can fix it ourselves by just offloading something, only to find the more we attempt at our own recovery, the deeper we make the ruts. Maybe our situation isn’t physically visible, but I’d wager we all have some personal ruts. Sometimes life is going to find us sunk and it’s going to take a helpful pull to get out. Wouldn’t it be sad if no one came?

No matter which side we’re on - needing a pull or being able to provide one - I think there’s a lesson in this sinking feeling.

More first snow pictures

Admittedly, I loved being a desert rat. Living in the desert southwest was full of the most amazing weather during what I knew to be the worst time of year growing up. The months of October through April are so beautiful in Arizona, the temperatures so mild and even. It was like the best of late spring and early fall temperatures of Idaho, but it lasts all fall, winter and spring long. I loved it. The tradeoff for this bliss was a lack of seasons. The only visible change in AZ during winter was the transition of green summer grass to green winter grass, this happens twice a year when lawns look brown for a short time while the new season’s grass takes hold. Halloween felt right, the weather turns from miserable hot to enjoyable all day and night long, but the signs of a season change were almost non-existant. I didn’t know how much I missed it.

This past weekend, we took our kids for a Sunday afternoon drive up through the Palisades reservoir, looping back through Victor on the circle drive home. I just kept snapping photos from inside the car, it was so pretty. The brilliant spots of color change were like touches of God’s paintbrush on the canvas of life. The drive itself brought back memories from my past and it felt wonderful to soak it all up. I’m so glad we did. This week the weather has turned. It’s raining with forecast of a cold front that will bring snow to some elevations. I’m glad we didn’t miss it, because seeing that spot of fall made me realize that I have been missing this season.