Shine the new light

Yesterday, I was at my parents’ house with my daughter. She was heading back to her mom’s, so we stopped by, made some muffins with Grandma—our thing. I went to wash my hands in the bathroom. It was midday, no lights on, just sunlight shining in through the window. I looked in the mirror and saw my face differently. Blemishes, scars, wrinkles I’d never noticed. My first instinct? Turn on the light.

And then I stopped myself.

I look in the mirror every single day with the light right there, and I never saw these things before. But now, because the light was coming in from a different direction, I saw something new. That’s the power of perspective. That’s what happens when we stop shining the same old light on our problems and start looking at them from a new angle.

A friend of mine who’s a cleaner once told me something similar. She said, You know when a room is truly clean? Not when the overhead lights are on—but when you turn them all off. Because then, the natural light will highlight the dust and imperfections you never noticed before.

It’s not always about adding more light. It’s about using the right light.

Read the rest here.