Perspective is not simply a point of view or an attitude towards something.
This is how it is practised on the surface. But on closer inspection, you may realise that it is ART.
It is a gate to the third dimension. It is awareness.
Let me explain:
Perspective is when you are not content with just one viewpoint on the same circumstance. It is curiosity. It is not helicopter-parenting your thoughts and ideas. It is setting them free, unleashing them into the world and letting them wonder. Allowing them to grow and become dreams. And living them.
Perspective is manifestation. This is why we know to be careful what we wish for.
It is acceptance. It is optimism. It is the lemon to lemonade, proverbial phrase.
It is strength. It is awareness that sometimes the same situation can be both a BLESSING AND A CURSE.
This is when blessings hurt. It is knowing that they are subjective, and that curses abide by the same doctrine.
This is how we know not to throw stones if we live in glass houses. We call it karma. It is how nature reprimands us.
I will demonstrate what I mean:
Cyclone Eloise is nature instilling change through a vigorous baptism of floods.
It is easier, when it rains, to bear the psychological effects of being under a lockdown.
These waters are designed to both devastate and calm us. To remind us of new beginnings. Of family. Of unity. Of LOVE. Of Nurture, of NATURE.
I have seen how dogs, descendants of the mighty wolf, eat grass for digestive reasons.
We are the surface feeders who have made the green our home. The muzzle of the canine was downgraded to a storm after losing her strength. Yet she still ate away at our homes.
But the grass will grow again. I wish a gigantic rainbow, clear skies and a dove with a freshly plucked olive leaf on its beak, to the hundreds of homes flooded in Jozini, northern KwaZulu-Natal. To the families in uMkhanyakude. Those who lost their lives. To the city of Beira, in Mozambique. In Limpopo, in Mpumalanga.
I pray your communities, municipality and the beyond will re-humanise your societies as you go through a change in your landscape. Change in your mind state. I hope you remain strong in those government tents with donated supplies. Equally in the new shacks you may manifest the courage and resolve to build. I pray for food on your new table too. For electricity in your shanty. For communal taps and mobile toilets.
Perspective is challenging your most intuitive, basic or preferred viewpoint on a circumstance. A dialogue of sorts in your head that you engage in when you feel you have concluded your mind on a matter. It is learning.
If perspective is an art, and we have explained and demonstrated how it can be practised, then I hope it can be practised to build resilience against the mental health toll of living, learning, working and parenting during a pandemic and beyond.