I was visiting with a friend who happens to be on house arrest due to illness and while I was there, we had a wonderful conversation. Part of our conversation was about how she doesn’t mind being cooped up because everyone is coming to visit her and she is benefiting from the wonderful conversations that she gets to share with people. She told me that she has discovered new things about people that she never knew. Things she would think one person would like turned out to be inaccurate and things she never knew about people before were coming to light. After this, I got to thinking how much of what we see in other people is really a reflection of who we are.

This doesn’t mean that what we are seeing isn’t real, but you and I can look at the same person and see something entirely different about him or her. As individuals we are not only who we perceive ourselves to be, but we all mean something different to each and every person with whom we interact. With this thought, I set off to do some research and I asked all of my friends and family to describe me in one word. Sure enough, every person who responded came up with a different word. Surprisingly none said, “narcissistic” even though they had no clue why I was asking them.

After I explained my reason for such difficult questioning, one friend pointed out that most people would respond with the positive, so if any of you would like to change your answers to what you really meant, feel free. She also told me that she tends to see the good and the bad about herself in others. I think what can be taken from all of this is that life is all about perspectives. As long as we keep an open mind about everything, we can find a little bit of ourselves in places we never dreamed of and we can give a little bit of ourselves to causes and people that never knew they needed us.

So for all who gave me some great answers, here are my words back to you. If you don’t remember which word you gave me, don’t ask because then I will know you just made it up 😉