I’ve been reading so much about the upcoming primaries and it really makes me wonder why people think they way they do, why they believe the things they believe in spite of evidence to the contrary and not only regarding politics but with everything.  The truth is really all in the believer’s perspective. Everyone has their own “truth”, no matter what the subject is. The only anomaly to this would be science, which is based on actual fact and even then there are people who will argue it.

Generally speaking when we listen to both sides of any story we come away with a belief for one side or the other when in reality both sides believe that their’s is the truth.  Taking one side or the other really comes from the listener’s perspective on the whole story. Where politics are concerned it baffles me that anyone who is a part of the middle class in today’s society would vote against their own best interests based on what the right-wing politicians are telling them and yet, don’t I do the same when I listen to the left-wing politicians?  Of course I do, and I choose to believe it because they appeal to the side of me that wants to see the kind of change they propose.  Putting that in perspective is something that I think we all need to do when it comes to politics. I used to argue with people and have even lost a few “friends” over it but the older I get the more I realize that it’s nothing more than whose truth we choose to believe. Not to say I won’t still argue, especially if the facts are clear, but I’m learning to give others the benefit of their freedom to believe as they see fit. Easy? No…but necessary if I want to stay connected to people I love regardless of their politics.

The same holds true for families.  Funny how families never turn out how we envision they should be. That’s because our vision of how they should be comes from our own perspective of course and everyone in the family has a different perspective. Families are bound together and torn apart by their individual perspectives no matter what the subject is. Our belief systems are shaped as we grow into adults by the people we meet along the way who shift our views and the life experiences that move and change us.  Losses can literally shift our consciousness in ways that we never imagined. Miracles can hold our hearts in places of love and light.  All of these things and more shape our own truths. Sometimes when I listen to the memories of people who are telling stories from the past that I’m involved in I wonder if I was even really there because I remember it so differently than they do.  Individual perspective.

I think we are closest to the people whose beliefs mirror our’s because it gives us common ground. What I’m working on is trying harder to see things from the perspective of people I’m not as close to, who don’t have the same belief system or “truths” that I do.  Some days I’m awesome at it….some days I don’t even want to try but my truth is, it’s worth the effort when I do.

Love and light, always.