We All look at the world through different pasts

​I did an activity during a training yesterday. I sent 15 people to the same spot along the lake where we were all gathered. I asked them to stand in the same spot and capture the following:

What did you sense?
What images came to mind when you sensed it?
How did those images make you feel?
What thoughts did you have in response to those feelings?
And how did those feelings make you want to behave?

It's a process all of our minds go through every second of every day while sensing our surroundings.

There was a controlled burn taking place at the park yesterday. So there was a lot of smoke in the air. The first two women to report out after the activity reported they smelled the smoke; that was what they sensed.

The first woman said it brought to mind her house that caught fire and burned down when she was a child. It made her feel anxious and made her want to run.

The second woman said it brought to mind camping trips and campfires as a kid. It made her feel warm. She said it made her want to go make smores.

The same spot. The same smoke. But two very different definitions of that smoke.

Two very different responses.

That's us. All living together in the world yet seeing it very differently. I don't think we often enough know this world we're looking at today is largely a reflection of the world we lived in yesterday. And since all of us lived in very different worlds yesterday, the worlds we see today are very different.

Same spot. Same smoke. Completely different interpretations.

Too often we want the world to see the world exactly as we see it, with little consideration that we've never lived in the world they've lived in. We fail to consider that the world someone else views is through a lens no other human has looked through.

One might wonder how one would could possibly turn down a campfire and smores. Another might wonder how one could possibly find joy sitting so close to a fire.

Often we wonder about the wrong things, though.

We wonder about the story someone is choosing and not the story they've been through. And sometimes, even, we judge the story someone is choosing without considering the story they've been through.

Same spot. Same smoke. Different stories.

Not everyone likes smores, but many times it has nothing to do with the smores.