Lenses

 It's wild how siblings can recall the same memory with multiple experiences, perspectives and details. The theme may remain constant but if they were each to paint the memory, each painting would produce a very unique look. That's when this little whisper of a thought comes to mind, "how true is what you say, if your siblings have a completely different conclusion than you?" I've thought long about this question. The words I speak matter. I want nothing less than speaking what is true as well as edifying and good for building others up. So if someone that walked the same road with me, for many years, were to challenge me and say, "what? It was awful! When I am saying, 'it was great!'" Then I certainly want to make sure I am being sensitive to understanding their perspective.

Lenses

Not too long ago I was switching lenses on my camera. The lens I had on the camera was good for portraits, blurring the background and making the subject stand out crystal clear. The lens I was putting on the camera was built as the standard lens, good for a myriad of things. I use it for capturing landscapes and other details I miss with my 50mm.

I started thinking about our circumstances in life. As if we were looking at them through the camera. Which lens would we want to use? What lens would capture things accurately? What lens might blur out details and focus on what we choose to be the focus? Is it possible to see things objectively? All the deep questions.

Back before we knew anything about lighting!

I personally feel that knowing what lens we view our life with, can influence our success, our relationships and our healing.

I am by no means an expert on the subject of understanding how our brain works. In fact, I am a hungry student eager to learn how it functions!

What I do know is that our experiences affect how we process information. Which in return affects  how we measure everything. Risks for example. I once dove off a diving board because I wanted to prove that I could do it. (Because a little girl was doing so good, surely I should be able to as well.) That experience left me feeling momentarily paralyzed in the pool. Freaky experience. I over did it and basically hit the water in a bridge position. Now? I pretty much stay away from diving. I would much rather go in feet first! Also, another memory was my sixth birthday. It was a day of games and fun. I recall it being a special birthday. One of my friends would probably recall the day as a sad day. She literally spent the time crying on the couch until her mom came to pick her up. Why did she cry? Because I opened a gift from another girl and it happened to be the same exact gift this little girlfriend of mine had got me. I see the day as a fun one, she could see the day as very sad. Was it still a good day? Yep. Was it a sad one for her? Yep! Same memory. Same day. Instead of one baby doll, I got TWO! It was great for me!

Anyways, I'm sure you get the point by now. A few friends and I have been gathering to share our testimonies. I am the last to go and have wondered in what direction do I go with mine? I feel like I could share for so long! What are the experiences that have marked me?  What would my siblings say of the same childhood? My sister went a completely different direction than me. How does she see the same upbringing? I've got a strong feeling it's much different that how I view it! The same thoughts go for my brothers'. If we were to look at memories through different lenses, would we see details that may have been blurred? Or, would we see a grander picture of what we were unaware of at the time?

Each of our stories are unique. Each of them matter. Our lenses/perspectives influence how we recall our memories. My conclusion is that just because a sibling of mine comes up with a different conclusion of the same upbringing than me, does not make mine any less true and vice versa. I'm actually pretty convinced that in such an event, there is room to gain understanding from each other. Possibly even room for revelation on how each other were viewing life at the time of the memory!

Also of note, I believe that truth is unwavering. So no matter what, what is true cannot change. However, through whatever lens we were looking through at the time of our memory, it certainly influenced how we processed the experience. Does that make sense?

The photos I included with this post were found on one of my external hard drives last year. What fun that day was! We ventured out, got white shirts and did this photo shoot to surprise our parents. Fun times!