The way you see things depends on your point of view.
Today I was thinking about something that happened in my backyard this summer. I was sitting at the kitchen table eating lunch when I saw a raccoon outside our sliding glass doors. It was just a little raccoon, so cute and round. I couldn’t believe he wasn’t asleep in the daytime, since raccoons are nocturnal. How cute! I thought. I’m so glad you’re awake for me to see you, little raccoon.
Then the little raccoon did something very un-cute. He started chasing a little squirrel across the top of the fence. Poor little squirrel, I thought. What a mean raccoon. My heart went out to the squirrel who was being chased. You’re a sweet little thing. You don’t deserve to be chased.
But wouldn’t you know it? As soon as I thought that, the squirrel did something very un-sweet; He started hogging the birdseed in the birdfeeder and bullying the little birds that were minding their own business trying to eat. What darling little birds, I thought. Their tiny hearts must be pounding, and now they’ll also go hungry! What a selfish squirrel!
Yet before I could think, the birds flew away from the bird feeder and into the nearby flower bed, where butterflies were landing on the herbs we use for cooking. I watched as one of the hungry birds ate a butterfly. What a horrible bird, I thought. That beautiful butterfly didn’t deserve to die!
At that moment, mom saw what was going on and shooed the birds and butterflies out of the herbs. Good for mom, I thought. Someone needs to care for the herbs.
This was a lot of drama for one day, and since it’s not normal to have so many things happen in a row like that, I knew I saw it to learn something.
I don’t think I saw it to learn about the food chain. I don’t think the food chain. I don’t think the lesson was about the unfairness of life either. No. I think it was a lesson about seeing things.
When I saw the raccoon, the squirrel, the birds, and the butterflies for the first time, I saw them like I wanted to see them. It was only after I saw what they did that I changed my mind. That made me think:
How many things do I not know?
How many things do I not see?
How many of my ideas need to be changed so they are right?
