I've been realizing that perspective is everything. Having good perspective, wider perspective, or seeing someone else's perspective can open your life to a whole other way of living. If my perspective of a situation is negative, then I will have a negative experience. If I go into it with a positive perspective, it may still be a negative situation but my perspective can allow me to turn it into a positive one -one in which I am undefiled by the negative. I want this for my life. Living here is helping me, or forcing me rather, to have a wider and more healthy perspective on life. I'm seeing this whole other world that I never knew existed for 22 years. I have such a passion for seeing and experiencing other cultures because every time I encounter these "whole other worlds" it increases my perspective. I no longer live my life the same - I have seen that this life isn't about my life. If it was about my life, then my life would be the only one that mattered, the only one that existed and everything would revolve around my life. But it doesn't! People here, people everywhere are just going through these patterns of birth, work, death. Some get to have fun, some experience a lot of pain, some get to love, some never know love. My perspective needs stretching daily because I constantly revert back to thinking that this life is about my life, my agenda, my gain.

I can choose to live here with the continued perspective that my life is the only one that matters- and I base my activities and relationships around that. Or I can choose to live a life with bigger perspective- one that is eternal; that opens my eyes to see this life as the tiny dot it is on the line of eternity. With this perspective, my heart loves more, my selfishness dies, my time is invested in things that matter, and I can see that the people around me matter just as much as I do- and they are starving for the bread that satisfies and gives meaning to this life.