Embracing Perspective: Finding Peace in the Summer Heat

My home office is a gorgeous, glass encased room that lies partially within the borders of our apartment and partially in the garden. Light comes streaming through all day long, and in moments of reflection or deep contemplation I get to look outside the window and watch the many cats or foxes or squirrels that parade around the garden – enjoying the grass, or the shade of the trees, or simply sitting and sniffing the wind (that last one is mostly just our not-a-care-in-the-world cat, Zaki).

This gorgeous space has been lovingly furnished by my husband and I with a beautiful, locally-made white desk, gorgeous velvet armchairs from West Elm, a pale gray Herman Miller chair, and white leaning ladder bookshelves. It truly looks like a dream.

And indeed, it feels like an dream.

Except…for when it doesn’t.

You see, my beautiful glass house lacks insulation and isolation. External noises permeate the walls, and during winter, the biting cold seeps through the slightest crevices, compelling me to wrap myself in blankets and don woolen socks while huddling in front of an electric heater. In the scorching summer, the glass roof intensifies the heat, endangering the delicate edges of my cherished banana leaf plant, which pleads for respite.

Is it heaven or hell?

Well, that depends on how you look at it.

I complained often as I suffered through another cold winter with wool socks and blankets, grumbling at my landlord's lack of attention to detail when constructing this space.. I would joke with anyone who would listen, highlighting the impracticality of my one-and-a-half-season office. Then the warmer weather would arrive, accompanied by the radiant, resplendent sun. As my complaints about the chill dissipated, a new resistance emerged when I found myself seared by the scorching rays within my intended sanctuary. The clamor of ongoing construction next door only compounded my determination to buckle down and persist in my office from morning till night, steadfastly refusing to let the weather best me.

I wished for cooler days, overcast skies and a break from the heat.

I, the sun-worshipping, June baby who adores nothing more than to spend hours outside roasting in the sun by a body of water, wished for the clouds to save me.

And then, at long last, a moment of clarity enveloped me.

The sun and its accompanying heat were beyond my control. The winter blues and bitter cold were beyond my control. However, the splendid space I had crafted, intended as a haven to retreat into, resided within the sphere of my influence. Yet, here I was, complaining regardless.

I made a conscious decision to alter my perspective. I resolved to harmonize with the rhythm of the seasons and the sunlight, embracing the morning sun as it bathed my office in luminosity, reveling in the ethereal brightness emanating from the sky before the heat took hold. By midday, as the rays cascaded onto my desk and the heat began its encroachment, I would relocate to the garden behind or venture to Hampstead Heath down the road. Finally, when the blaze of the day mellowed, I would return to my sanctuary in tranquility. No longer would I wage war against forces beyond my control. No longer would I strive to manipulate, rectify, or banish that which was truly a gift.

A simple shift in perspective transformed my irritation and feeling of being under siege by the world into acceptance. I allowed life to unfold and explored alternative avenues of engagement.

Let this be an invitation for you to reflect upon your own life and identify areas where resistance is most pronounced at this moment in time. What frustrates you or keeps you locked in battle mode, overcome with frustration, anger, or complaint? How might you alter your perspective to perceive the situation through a different lens and cultivate a new relationship with it?

Please hit reply and share what comes up for you as you reflect on this.

Here’s to savoring every seasons in your life.

Yours,

Amanda

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