What color is green to you? Does it have a little bit of yellow or blue in it? Is it a warm or a cool color? Does “green” make you think of the color of grass or the rainforest? The color green you see is your perception and your reality. Years ago I learned that just because it is someone else’s perception does not make it my reality and does not make theirs wrong.
Our perception is our reality with the operative word being “our.” Sometimes I think the hardest thing we do as humans is to realize that the word “our” is not the same as “your” and be okay with it. If we open our eyes, and mind, we are able to celebrate the diversity and knowledge derived from it.
One of my favorite movie scenes is from City of Angels when Nicholas Cage’s character asked Meg Ryan’s character what the pear tasted like. She asked if he hadn’t ever had a pear and he responded by saying he wanted to know what it tasted like to her. How powerful. He was providing her an opportunity to give voice to her experience, her reality in relation to the pear, how it felt and tasted in her mouth. How it tasted to him and his experience in eating the pear would not have been the same, even if his character was not an angel.
I have actually applied a version of that line to simple things in my life to have a better understanding of my perception…my reality. When I do things I consciously ask myself questions about my experience. When I shower I might ask, “How does the water feel running down my face?”
There is an old saying about walking a mile in my shoes. However, even if you did walk a mile in my shoes you still would not have the same experience. I might have a corn or I might be flat footed. Although we may take the same path in my shoes your interpretation of walking a mile in my shoes can not be the same as my reality, our past experiences are not the same and they do factor in. Our experiences can be shared with one another and may be we will have some commonalities, but for the most part our journeys will be personal and different.
After walking a mile in my shoes my perception of being a Spirited Woman is being in touch with the essence of my being, acknowledging all living things, and breathing deeply.
- D. Malone, http://www.survivingthemurderofself.com
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D. Malone is passionate about the healing and spiritual empowerment of women. As an author and public speaker she encourages women to reclaim and maintain their truths, their identity. Malone is the author of Green: Surviving the Murder of Self. She has her M.A. in Counseling and is working towards her Ph.D. in Women’s Spirituality from the California Institute of Integral Studies. To learn more about D. Malone please visit: survivingthemurderofself.com.


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