I’m talking about perspective, not the law of attraction… although I can see how they overlap in certain places.
I don’t have many good stories about my stepfather, but since he recently passed away and I’m still grieving, I thought I would share one story involving him. This story shaped my life.
I was very young, not even a teen, when this made me reflect on the POWER of our perspective, and how we choose to see life.
Dirt Poor Living On Dirt Roads
I was born into poverty, and was still in a poor family when we moved to the United States in 1993. We came to the Deep South. Rural. Not much to see but trees.
I was still a kid, single-digits, when I noticed a pattern in our family.
Every time something would break, money would show up.
It’s incredible, right? Picture us living in the early 90’s (no internet, barely a landline phone) in the middle of nowhere… and our one and only car breaks.
There’s no “savings account.” There’s no “paycheck” (my parents refused to work the entire time I was with them). There’s no “bus” to take us into town for anything.
Just endless dirt roads, woods, and… nothing.
I knew we had nothing, even at that age. And that car? It was our only way to go buy food or necessities. Again… no bus. Walking? Sure, but it would’ve been more of a hike through the dirt roads, in the scorching and unpredictable southern US weather.
And yet, somehow, the money would ALWAYS show up. A scratch-off win. A refund for something that was overpaid. A late birthday gift with a check in the mail.
The Money Would Always Show Up… And That Would Piss Off My Stepfather
I saw it happen with a broken car (that we needed). I saw it happen with a broken fridge (that we needed).
The money to fix these necessities would appear, like a blessing from above, and what would my stepfather say:
Every time I get a little money, something breaks!!
And what would my young mind think:
No, sir. Something breaks, and you always get money to fix it.
Choose Your Own Perspective
His perspective was that any time he received a little extra money “for fun,” it always had to go to necessities. (I say, if he wanted fun money, maybe he should’ve gotten a job… but I digress).
My perspective was that any time we desperately needed something, a little extra money would show up, in the nick of time, to save us from a really hard time.
He saw a curse.
I saw a blessing.
Which one of us was correct?
The Only Right Answer is: YOU CHOOSE.
In his life, he was right. It was a curse he was living through. And because he saw a curse, he was angry, resentful, closed-up, and ungrateful.
But in my life, I was also right. It was a blessing that I was living through. And because I saw a blessing, this gave me relief, comfort, openness, and such GRATITUDE!
Change Your Perspective, Change Your Life
That’s what I learned from that ongoing experience, before the age of ten.
Thank you for reading :-]
Take care,
Dear Quiet
signal.log: 4.20.2026
coding = lessons_from_memories
engaging… a/new/mind
end . sequence