Imagine this:

• You wake up, walk into the kitchen to grab breakfast and find out that the leftover french toast quinoa (with toasted pecans, dried cherries, and cinnamon – recipe coming soon) you had dreamed about eating for breakfast is gone.  Apparently your significant other beat you to it.
• Then, as you pass by the kitchen sink, you discover that when your main squeeze “helped” do the dishes last night, he/she left the usual lone straggler.  That’s right, EVERY.SINGLE.TIME your spousal unit washes the dishes he/she overlooks a SINGLE random cup, bowl, or spoon (How is that even possible?!?).
• After washing the “forgotten” dish, you head to the utility room to start a load of laundry.  As you sort the clothes something catches your eye…It’s a blotch on an otherwise uniform fabric…The type A person’s worst nightmare…Yup, it’s a STAIN…on your spouse’s BRAND NEW pants. You immediately realize that the big greasy spot is not going to come out no matter how much elbow grease you put into it and submit to the fact that it will be in good company with all of your spouse’s other stained, ripped, and holey clothes.

How does this scenario make you feel?  Does it hit close to home?  It does for me.  In fact, this is a typical day at the Majestic house.

There was a time, early in our marriage, when I would allow myself to feel frustrated at these things. I remember wondering:

• “How could he be so rude as to eat the last of something without asking me first?”
• “For ONCE, why can’t he wash ALL of the dishes?!?”
• “How could he be so careless and stain the clothes that we worked so hard to provide?”

But then I got sick… My world was turned upside down, and my perspective changed. I no longer feel a prisoner to the negative emotions I felt about material things. They are just things. They can be replaced.

Instead of being upset when my husband eats the last of the french toast quinoa, I feel excited that he chose to eat a nutritious breakfast when I know there are lots of less nutritious options he could have eaten.

Instead of feeling resentful that he leaves a dish for me to wash the next morning, I look at the counter and see the mound of dishes that he DID wash (without complaining) and realize that he saved me a lot of time by doing them.

Instead of feeling frustrated that my husband ruined another piece of clothes, I look at the fabric and wonder what my hubby was doing when the stain occurred. Was he welding? Or perhaps wood working? Maybe he was painting or making a tasty treat in the kitchen? And I smile. I smile because I know that he got that stain living life to its fullest. Doing what he loves. Having experiences and making memories. And THAT is something worth smiling about.

I now know that perspective is everything.

So, I ask you (and me) the following question. If things aren’t looking good from your current perspective, what changes can you make to create a new one?