All in how you look at it.

Sitting on the back porch after dark a few days ago, something caught my eye in my peripheral. I saw movement in the dark corner of the yard. So I took a closer look, staring hard at the area where I saw movement....Nothing, couldn't see what it was. It was at this time that I remembered something from a psychology of perception course I took during college: "rods and cones"- look slightly away from the object, and.... a toad.

(Now for the technical explanation:There are basically two types of receptors in the eye that allow us to see- rods and cones. Cone receptors help us to see details and colors- cones are mostly located in the "macula" or focal point on the back of the eye. Rods capture big things, and things in peripheral, don't see color...thus making them more useful than cones as far as night vision. Rods are almost completely absent from the forementioned "macula" which is contains mostly cones... which explains why looking right at something in the dark actually inhibits your ability to see the object.) The picture above is a simple illustration I created, for more information and a detailed explanation about rods and cones, click here.

This got me thinking though. When we encounter problems in life, when things don't go our way or frustrate us, we seem to focus directly on that problem. We become determined to "figure it out" and "fix it." It can become an obsession until the problem is solved, all othere things take a back seat to the problem at hand. I'm speaking from experience. I am guilty of being encouraged to leave something alone, only to reply, "No, it's personal now."

What if instead of trying to fix every problem that comes along, we learn to roll with things- we learn to wait and see if the problem is really that bad, or maybe it wouldn't seem so bad if we changed how we looked at it? This week, when a problem comes along... try not to let it become the focus, and trying viewing it from different perspective. Take time and enjoy.

"Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain. In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat— for he grants sleep to those he loves." Psalm 127:1-2