Posts by Pat:
Perception Colors Everything
Remember this old perception test where you can see a 
white vase or two faces in profile?
Or what about that picture where you could see an old woman or a beautiful young woman?
Once you were shown a different way of looking at the picture, the image shifted. What you saw depended on your perspective.
The modern 3-D chalk art drawings that play with our perceptions are really fun to experience, like this one! And they remind us that it’s just a choice of perspective.
What we see is always open to interpretation and the same is true of life.
The way we see our life today is through a filter of our experiences, beliefs, and patterns.
Some perspectives are conscious and some are unconscious.
The interesting thing is that unconscious beliefs can color our life expressions without us being aware they exist.
And the most promising thing to me is that we can choose our beliefs to create our experiences the way we want them.
My cancer went from being a devastating experience to an opportunity to appreciate my life and the love and support of friends and strangers.
We can choose what we want to experience by changing our point of view.
We can look at our life from another vantage point.
We can choose to release old barriers.
And once we accept that our “reality” is based on our perceptions, perhaps we can accept that other folks’ reality is based on their perceptions, not ours. So we can accept that we are not necessarily right and they are not necessarily wrong.
Have you found that your perceptions have changed over the years (or even moment to moment)?
Have you found yourself emotionally attached to what you really know is an outmoded perspective?
Please share your “perceptions” in the comment space below!
Life’s a two-sided coin?
“Can’t have one without the other?” Coins have a front and back side; can’t have one without the other. Breathing is both inhaling and exhaling; can’t have one without the other. Circulation is both giving and receiving; can’t have one without the other. The tide is both incoming and outgoing; can’t have one without the […]
Chocolate AGAIN?
We’re half way between two major reasons/excuses for chocolate! And since it’s been over a year since I focused on chocolate here, I decided it’s time to share one of my favorite topics again! This year’s first major chocolate holiday was Valentine’s Day! And when my sister and I had our chocolate store in Seattle, it […]
Spring Forward or Bloom Where You’re Planted?
We all have two choices as we move our clocks forward an hour for Daylight Saving Day. Although the image of cutting off a foot at the top of the blanket and sewing it on the bottom of the blanket doesn’t really make much sense, we still do it! Choice One: Spring Forward Today! […]
You’re Not Too Busy
One of the biggest lies we tell ourselves and others is that we are “too busy.” It seems to be an automatic default, an excuse for when we don’t want to do something (or haven’t done it!) Too busy? You’re not. I’m not. We’re not. We always seem to find time for what we really […]
Be Careful What You Wish For!
I did it again, and it’s not like I didn’t know better! Yep, this time I was looking at my carefully planned schedule with each day carefully scheduled so that no day would be an overload. I realized that what I really wanted was a schedule that would allow me to not get up in the morning […]
Action Trumps Thought
We are always talking about what we want, what we intend. But these are dreams and wishes and are of little value in changing our mood or our world. We are not what we think, or what we say, or how we feel. We are what we do. The value we bring to our lives […]
Do you have “Triskaidekaphobia?”
Triskaidekaphobia is fear of the number 13 and avoiding using it. Think hotels with no 13th floor! Who knew that this fear appears to be rooted in pre-Christian traditions, when the Norse god Loki invited himself to the Banquet of Valhalla, becoming the 13th guest. His mischief caused the death of Baldr, a favorite of the […]
How to Avoid Stress: Live With Margin
Like it or not, stress is probably here to stay. And a lot of stress can reduce the quality of our life as well as the quality of our relationships. That’s why it’s important that we learn how to avoid excessive stress. I believe that one key to accomplishing this is to live with margin. Margin is the […]
Are You Creatively Maladjusted?
This week we celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day for many good reasons, but one thing that stands out for me is his coining of a new phrase: creatively maladjusted. And in a sermon on this topic Martin Luther King Jr explicitly said: Everybody passionately seeks to be well-adjusted…but there are some things in our world to which men […]


