As I wandered today I wondered……don’t we all perceive the world differently? If our stories, our personal stories, shape our selves, which is how it seems to me, then our experiences will frame our present reality. We experience today in the light of our past experiences and our imagined futures. Stories all have this movement….from the past, to the present, to the future – a beginning, a middle and an end I suppose.
So one of the most powerful ways in which memories and dreams can create our present is how they frame our perception and our interpretation of today’s experiences.
What frames are you aware of? Which memories, which dreams or fears, create the frames of your present?
The other thing I wondered about today was about the uniqueness of our individual perspectives. We can only experience the world as a subject, as this subject, living this life. So, how does the world look from your unique, subjective perspective?
(this is a view from the tatami mats, across the strips of carpet, towards the Japanese garden – this is a view from where I was kneeling)
Finally, how can we share these ways of seeing? How can we develop our inter-subjective experience? One way, for me, is through the sharing of our stories. You can share your experience by telling me it. I can share mine, by telling you…..or by showing you what I caught with my camera…..(I’m sure you can think of other ways too)
Heroes Not Zombies 
I regularly blow my students’ minds by reminding them that we can only ASSUME that we understand one another – that my relationship to them is COMPLETELY different from their relationship with me, and that what I see as “red” may come across as something entirely different from what they see, but we’ve all been trained to call what we’re seeing “red.” It freaks them out that we’re all having distinctly unique experiences and, in fact, may not be sharing much of anything at all…