Walking In Your Shoes

We see the world around us through our eyes, through our perspective, and base our thoughts and reactions, judgments and attitudes, on that life.

I saw a homeless man walking down the street this week and it got me pondering what his life was like, walking in his shoes.  His cloths were soiled and well worn.  He carried a bag with most likely everything he owned.  The sweat of the heat and humidity were streaming down his face.  He was headed, who knows where.  Maybe for a place of refuge, maybe a meal at the shelter, or maybe just no place in particular. I tried to imagine his thoughts, his concept of life, his hopes and dreams....and disappointments. I wondered how he viewed the world around him, the people he met on the street and his own life. I knew there was no way I could imagine what is life was and is......without walking in those worn and tattered shoes.

As I was on that same road, I saw a man in a nice expenses car, zoom around me, with no thought of anyone but himself.  It seemed as if life owed him something, that he was the one in charge, the only one that mattered as he sped by. As I watched him, he looked like so many men in my neighborhood, phone to his ear, big fancy car, stopping at the corner store to make a drug deal, then speeding away to his next meeting.  The need for power, for money, for control, was his life. I tried to imagine his thoughts, his hopes and dreams......his disappointments. It was so easy to criticize him for what he was doing, for the lives that he was ruining, for his own life that seemed to have no concepts of morality. But, then again, I haven't walked in his shoes.

When we multiply these two men by millions, we see a world where the life around us is created partially in our own mind and partially by the circumstances of our existence. I look at my own life and sometimes am awed at the incredible experiences I've been blessed with.  I also wonder how I made it through some days where life seemed to be bent on throwing it's worst at me.

We see through our eyes, our ears, our touch....our senses and live our life accordingly. We react by the waves of thoughts that continue to roll over and over in our minds.  We live with our vices, the thorns in our side, our misgivings, our mistakes, and judge the world by the way we judge ourselves. We forget sometimes that the world doesn't revolve around us because in our mind, through our eyes......it does.

Can we change our perspective, our view of this world.  Can we open our hearts to living life with the warmth of love and a greater cause. Can we stop looking at the world, as we walk in our shoes and imagine what it would be like, to walk in the shoes of the man you meet on the street, the cashier behind the counter, the lady that just shot by you on the road...........

I don't know......
I guess it comes from our own desire to make this world a better place, to walk in others shoes for a day, and as my good friend Lin gave me the best advice I've been given.........

Be Who You Wish The World Would Be

and the Journey Continues.....