The C.A.T. Principle – Global Ebook Awards GOLD & SILVER Winner for Best Self-Help Non-Fiction Ebook of 2014 & 2016

Departing San Francisco eastward bound…Photo by Al Bolter

Perspective, the American West, and the Warsaw Concerto at 30,000 feet…

We’re now in the final months of 2014, and with it another year will soon close. With Canadian Thanksgiving past and American Thanksgiving approaching, it’s time to count blessings, raise toasts, and appreciate all that’s right. It’s time for gratitude; and above all, it’s time for perspective.

In the frantic pace of life, between work, family and friends, internet and cell phones, it’s a rare moment to stop and gather perspective, to stop and reflect upon that which is truly important, and that which is merely interesting. One such moment for me struck on a recent Toronto-bound flight via San Francisco after a weekend spent in the intensity that Las Vegas is.

Lifting off over the glittering waters of San Francisco Bay, the jet climbed to 30,000 feet eastward bound. It was then, with Transamerica Pyramid, Golden Gate, Alcatraz, and Berkeley in fading vista that the American West crept onto the scene. It was then, while Richard Addinsell’s 1941 Warsaw Concerto fed my ears that those thoughts of perspective came calling.

The American West near Lake Tahoe…Photo by Al Bolter

There’s something about the American West that causes the soul to stir. Its grandeur and vastness is a catalyst for thought, a catalyst for putting things in perspective. Our lives can be chalked full of worry, anxiety, conflict and strife, and yet these thoughts pale in comparison when gaping out upon the natural glory of the American West. Self-importance and self-absorption become but an after-thought.

The power, the beauty, the serenity, from the Sacramento Valley across Tahoe, through Nevada desolation and Utah valleys, to the Colorado Rockies reaching Nebraskan plains, is a humbling experience – the ruggedness a reminder to appreciate comfort, the majesty a signal to remain grounded, and the eternity a suggestion to our mortality.

To experience the American West from 30,000 feet is to fly through a tunnel of self-discovery. It’s an opportunity to view our lives from a different perspective; a perspective that brings sanity to a world that otherwise may sometimes seem insane. It’s an occasion to recall our true selves, and not the selves we often pretend to be (see The Worst Kind of Identity Theft…). Phoniness is not a trait of this unforgiving landscape. There’s no sugar-coating, no falsifying, no airs. What one sees, is what one gets.

Sunset above the American West…Photo by Al Bolter

As we descend into Toronto, the American West lay beyond the horizon, but as much as it lay beyond the horizon, it’s more than just a physical space. It’s an idea, an idea that we mustn’t take our problems too seriously, lest we let life pass us by. Perspective is fundamental to a fulfilled life; for without it, life’s challenges overwhelm, but with it, life’s challenges are but stepping-stones to a life well-lived.

So the next time travels take you 30,000 feet above the American West, lean in, enjoy the view, listen to a little Warsaw Concerto, and you may just be amazed how perspective comes your way…

 For more on perspective check out The C.A.T. Principle: Change, Action, Trust – Words to Live By, a Global Ebook Awards GOLD First Place Winner for Best Non-Fiction Self-Help Ebook of 2014, available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

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A Global Ebook Awards GOLD Winner for Best Non-fiction Self-help Ebook of 2014.