Wir laufen ständig Gefahr, den Überblick über die Herausforderungen zu verlieren. Wir verwechseln, was für eine Katastrophe machbar ist; wir verzweifeln zu früh an uns selbst; wir entfremden andere, indem wir überreagieren; wir bemerken und schätzen nicht, wofür es noch dankbar zu sein gilt; wir vergessen, dass wir sterben werden und dass viele der heutigen Kopfschmerzen bald vergessen sein werden.

Diese "Karten für die Perspektive" von The School of Life bieten eloquente Einladungen, um eine weisere, ruhigere und erlösende Perspektive auf unser Leben zu gewinnen.

Jede Karte identifiziert eine neue Perspektive, die wir auf Probleme nehmen könnten - Perspektiven, die unter anderem von Zeit, Raum, Geschichte, Kultur und Reisen geprägt sind - und die uns sanft und mitfühlend zu einer lebenswerteren Beziehung mit unseren Schwierigkeiten anspornen.

BEISPIEL-PERSPEKTIVEN:

1 – The Oldest Living Tree
This not very tall spruce tree (it’s only five meters in height) has been standing on a ridge of the Fululfjlallet mountain in Sweden for more than nine thousand years. It has kept going in the face of appalling weather in quiet obedience to the same basic forces that have always governed its existence: rain, sunlight, wind and the nutrients it imperceptibly draws from the forbidding rocky soil beneath it.

2 – A Child Looking at Ants
The child doesn’t know the science of insect life – but they’re newly astonished by the strangeness of existence nevertheless. What would it be like to be a minuscule creature marching in file towards a tiny fissure at the base of a brick wall? Do they have friends? Do they get sad? Do they know they are being watched? The last thing, properly attended to, could furnish a lifetime of thought. We don’t have to stop speculating, as we once did.

3 – The Middle of the Night
The entire country – almost – must be asleep; our minds are free to wander, for a little while. Unusually grand questions seem powerfully relevant: what have I done with my life, where am I going? We revise assumptions: was that rejection that felt so painful at the time actually a veiled invitation we didn’t know how to read: they said ‘later’, we thought it meant never. A remark we made years ago suddenly strikes us as deeply embarrassing. We feel sorry for kindnesses we failed to show. We are larger, more complex – often nicer and more interesting – beings than is apparent in the daytime. Could we dare to show others more of our middle–of–the–night selves?

4 – The Desert
We couldn’t survive here long on our own; but the empty, vast spaces are inviting to the mind. Our own lives – and our concerns – are on a tiny scale, by comparison. Things that have up until now been looming so large (what’s gone wrong with the Singapore office, a colleague’s cold behavior, the disagreement about patio furniture) is cut perfectly down in size. Local, immediate sorrows are reduced; none of our troubles, disappointments or hopes have very much significance for a time.

Inhalt: 20 Karten in einer Geschenkbox
Sprache: Englisch
Größe: 16 x 11,5 x 2 cm