A Point of View

I've been giving a lot of thought to how our surroundings help shape our perceptions . . . here are a few tidbits from my ramblings. As anyone who lives on an island can attest, when you eventually go visit the "real world", one of the first things you'll notice is how fast things move. When my sister picked us up at the airport, she was going maybe 55 MPH down a 2 lane road - the posted speed limit - and I was terrified, clenching th dashboard, sure we were going to crash and die, amazed that my sister could negotiate such a high speed video game. On the island, you get up to maybe 35 MPH, usually a lot less, and after 10 months out here it really altered my view of speed. What is ironic is I have not exactly been known for slow driving prior to moving out here, if you know what I mean.

A recent study demonstrated that showing people an Apple logo - for mere milliseconds - activated areas in the brain responsible for creativity, while flashing the Microsoft logo activated areas that controlled logic and mathematical reasoning. If those tiny exposures affected how the brain was working, imagine the effects of everything else we expose ourselves to over the course of the day. What we surround ourselves with determines who we become. Choose nature over television and beauty over ugliness. Change your environment if it makes you stressed or unhappy. Surround yourself with things that make your heart smile - for me, those things are usually local art, rocks and shells and other pretty smelly things from the beach, small momentos from travels, pictures of family. Spend time with people who support and challenge you, and who give off a positive vibe. And for goodness sakes, take time out to just do nothing to regain your center. Cheers and good night . . .