The View, Long

Long: Extending to what is distance in time or space; far-reaching.

As I stagger haltingly through my day, crashing through windows and running into walls, I am often surprised at how my work in The Program has given me the ability to see things from different perspectives. It used to be that the only perspective I had was the one two inches from my face. I lived in the vacuum of Horseface Steve. There was nothing in my consciousness that didn't pertain to me. I was like a snail or a slug. If I saw some food, I slithered closer. If I detected an unwelcome stimulus, I slithered elsewhere. I didn't pay any attention to the greater consequences of my slithering. I slithered toward something or away from something. I took The Short View.

Today I see, sometimes, The Big Picture. Or at least I perceive that my Higher Power has painted a Big Picture that includes me. When something happens that I find unpleasant, I understand that it will all work out in the long run. That doesn't absolve me of taking some action or learning some acceptance, but it does remove a lot of the panic. I know that I'm going to be taken care of. I try to take The Long View.

All I'm trying to say is that before I start to blindly slither, I check out the direction of my slithering.