Sunday Smiles

No, you haven't traveled back in time, I'm just a little late in getting this intended-for-Sunday post to you!  (But you can pretend you've traveled back in time if you'd like!)  So what makes me smile?  Traveling by plane...

I absolutely love having a window seat on a plane so I can watch everything get smaller and smaller the higher and higher we go.  As that happens, I also feel like I'm getting smaller and smaller in the big scheme of things.  Seeing things that we see everyday from a different perspective, well, puts things into perspective!  How little my problems and worries seem when compared to the greater whole...

I feel the same even being in an airport.  I, with my own little story, am surrounded by hundreds of people, each with their own stories.  This used to make me feel insignificant, but now makes me feel part of something larger, the real story.  I never thought I would feel that being around a lot of people.  Going out for a walk in the woods was more likely to give me that sense of wonder, belonging and connectedness that Emerson, Thoreau and many others have written about.  But being a generally shy and anxious person, it would seem unlikely for me to feel similarly when in a crowd of people!  My love of nature in that sense, seems to have extended to people.  How we change and evolve!

While taking these pictures from the plane, I was reading a book that quoted John Randolph Price as follows:

"Until you transcend the ego, you can do nothing but add to the insanity of the world. That statement should delight you rather than create despair, for it removes the burden from your shoulders."

When we can step outside of our own little worlds and get out of our heads, our own little problems become insignificant.  Conversely, I think we as individuals see ourselves become more significant.  We see we are all connected to something outside of ourselves.  We see that our own egos can betray us with untrue thoughts and beliefs, making us slaves to our problems and worries.  But once we can go beyond ourselves, and become observers rather than the victims of our thoughts, the burden is lifted!  We are free to see what's really important.  And that's certainly a reason to smile.

(As a follow up to last week's Sunday Smiles, I had to smile when on Monday I saw an article on the Swiss Cross on Apartment Therapy!)