A young couple moved into a swanky apartment in a new neighbourhood. They sat in their kitchen having breakfast, watching the world go by. The woman saw her neighbour pegging out the washing. ‘That laundry’s not very clean,’ she tutted. ‘She either needs a new washing machine or better washing powder.’
Other than the crunching on his toast, her husband remained silent.
His wife’s comment was exactly the same the next day. And the next. ‘Why on earth is that woman hanging out dirty washing?’ she sighed in disgust. ‘She needs lessons in basic hygiene!’
And her husband crunched, knowingly.
On the fourth day his wife plonked herself at the breakfast table with a gleeful smile. ‘At last,’ she said, pointing at their neighbour’s washing line.’ Her husband followed her gaze to the neatly arranged clothes line where the whites sparkled and the colours shone. ‘All of a sudden she seems to have learned to clean properly.’
And her husband broke his silence. ‘I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows.’
And so it is with life. We view the world from inside our head. Our eyes are our windows on the world. Before we give any criticism, it might be a good idea to check our state of mind and ask ourselves if we are ready to see the good rather than to be looking for something in the person we are about to judge. It’s easy to be critical. It’s easy for our windows to become grimy.
So, to stretch the vision metaphor just a little bit too far, we don’t want you to go all ‘rose tinted’. Not everything in the world is good and bright and fantastic. But, if you follow our advice and view the world through our ‘positive tinted’ spectacles, the world’s a lot brighter than you think.