Suzanne Askham

Wellbeing notes: The world from our neighbours’ windows

There’s an old stone house on a hill that I can see from my back window. Today, that distant building is bathing in sunlight. It looks rather idyllic over there, surrounded as it is by rolling pastures.

I’ve always supposed that the residents of that old stone house must look over to us, perched on our own hillside, in much the same way that we view them. But recently I discovered this wasn’t the case at all. We took a detour from a local pub, and came across the old stone house. For the first time I was able to look across from it, towards our street. However there were too many trees surrounding the homes there to glimpse a single brick or stone.  

What people see depends very much on their perspective, of course. But it’s so easy to forget that fact, until you metaphorically step into another’s shoes. Even people who live next door to each other can perceive life very differently. 

Somewhere, deep in our tribal minds, we might on occasion decide that people who don’t see things exactly as we do, are not ‘our’ people. We may even blame them unfairly for a host of ills. But the truth is, people are people wherever you go. We all share the same human hopes and fears. Therefore, being understanding of another’s perspective, however near or far away they may be, has to be one of the most valuable life skills of all.