Checking My Perspective

 

view from the loom bench (colours are darker irl and harder to see what is happening)

view from the side of the loom (colours are more accurate)

There are times when our 'usual' viewpoint really doesn't tell the story.  So it is with weaving. 

When I sit at the loom to weave, my view is close up and only from one direction.  With this particular warp, I really cannot see much of the weave structure because the colours are overwhelming my view.  The way the threads weave together becomes very subdued.

When I am weaving something like this, then, I tend to get up from the loom and walk around it.  As the direction of light changes, as my perspective and angle change, I can begin to see more clearly what the cloth actually IS, not just what I experience from one, very narrow viewpoint.

So it is with life, too.  We get so accustomed to our 'usual' view that we forget there are other viewpoints.  That other people may have completely different experiences in society, in life.  And we tend to forget that their views, their experiences are just as valid and 'real' as our own.

Right now the United States and Canada are having a moment.  It is a moment where we can stop and listen to other people when they share their experience.  We can get up from our usual seat and begin to examine our society from different angles, step back and allow other people to share their reality.  Acknowledge that we can learn, change, grow, as we know more fully what is going on.

As human beings we tend to believe that our experience, our 'normal' is everyone else's.  If we don't experience something, then it doesn't happen.  But some of us became aware that the world is much larger than our own small personal bubble.  And some people are working to reduce the damage done by systems that oppress others.

Do the best that you can and when you know better, do better.  But before you can know better, you need to accept that you don't know everything.

I'm working on the listening part.  I'm working on knowing better.  I'm working on the doing better.

I'm walking around situations trying to get better light on them in order to see them more clearly.

I'm checking my perspective.