Changing Perspective

Most days, I post a photo on Instagram and Facebook. It’s either a book I’ve just read, with a mini-review, or it’s a close up photo of a plant or flower from my garden. It’s a deliberate attempt to be a positive influence on social media (to my few followers at least!).

I bumped into one of my ‘Facebook friends’ the other day and she said she loved my photos of flowers and only wished her garden looked as good as that. ‘That’s why I take close ups,’ I said. ‘They look better, and you can’t see the mess in the rest of the garden.’

I’m not trying to be misleading. I’m just making the best of what I have: the blessing of a large garden and not enough time to maintain it as I would like.

But the conversation made me think about perspective.

Unlike a lot of writers, I enjoy editing. I can put in a decent day’s work without needing to wait for inspiration. And it’s less scary than writing the first draft, wondering where the words are coming from and whether I have any control over what happens next. There’s something very satisfying about crafting a good sentence, focussing on getting the right rhythm and the precise words. 

The problem is, sometimes I can spend hours doing that. Then, when I step back, I see that while the sentence is lovely, the paragraph doesn’t work to advance the story and is probably not needed at all. I have wasted that time. And it’s much harder to get rid of a well-written chapter than a sketchy, first-draft one.

Sometimes, focussing too much on the close up means I lose the overall perspective. I’ve pruned the plant beautifully, but ignored the large patch of thistles next to it.

Although maybe I couldn’t see the thistles until I’d pruned the plant back to the size I wanted it to be. Sometimes I need to make a paragraph as good as it can be before I can accept that it’s not needed. Because if it’s still in draft I can tell myself it’s not working because it’s poorly written.

A garden should be full of beautiful plants that tempt you close to admire their delicate colours and scents. It should also be full of a variety of shapes and colours and textures so that when you look from the window, you can admire the whole.

A well-written book has a narrative that works and carries the story forwards, but is also full of sentences that flow and images that strike a reader and make them pause.

What about faith? Sometimes if step back and look at the world, it’s a mess and the big problems, be they climate or poverty or war, they overwhelm me. But if look closely I can see where God is working in my life and the lives of people I know.

I need to do both. It’s important to see the big picture and pray into it, knowing that God is almighty. At the same time, I am encouraged by all God is doing in the detail, in the lives of each one of his people. After all, he is the God of vastness and of minutiae; the Creator of the universe who knows how many hairs are on my head.