Keeping it all in perspective

I awoke this morning feeling ...... sad.

It's cloudy outside, a slight breeze is blowing and the temperature likely will not make it out of the 60's. It feels like a fall morning. I stepped out the back door and heard a flock of geese flying overhead. "That's great", I mused. "They are heading south already." When I spotted them, thankfully they were flying north... perhaps they had a change in perspective and turned around.

'Here she goes again, whining about the weather', you might say.

And I'd agree. Here I am lamenting about the weather when there are Kenyans and Somalians (and Texans) who would gratefully trade places with me.

A talk show host recently spoke about Yakima, WA. For those of you who haven't visited Yakima, it's kinda sorta considered the armpit of the world. Where once it was a thriving, middle income community situated in the desert of eastern WA, due to harsh economic times over the years it has now become a magnet for crime, high unemployment and a mecca for gangs. It houses a huge transient migrant worker community and the host pointed out that although you and I may not choose to live in Yakima, there are Mexicans sneaking into our country, swimming dangerously across rivers and hiking through arid landscape, anxious to leave Mexico all for the opportunity of living and working in such a place. It's all about perspective.

Which brings up another philosophical point. Often, I say, "It is what it is". But it is really? Our viewpoint of life in general is dominated by our personal perception of any given event. Yakima, WA may seen like the armpit of the world to you but it's a thriving paradise to another.

So, back to the our cool temperatures....

TODAY IS A GIFT and since gifts make me happy, regardless of the temperature outside, today will be a great day!

(Postscript - 4 hours later... the marine air has burned off and not a cloud in the sky can be seen. I'm thinking the weatherman is wrong, once again.)