It is possible to live a beautiful life. It can be ugly too. Your perspective can make a big difference.
San Francisco Bay is a popular sight in California. Golden Gate Bridge. Mountains. Mountain biking trails. The bay waters sparkle. Everywhere you look, you’re surrounded by the beauty of nature.
Unless you’re a prisoner on Alcatraz Island just a mile off shore.
For three decades, Alcatraz was home to one of the most notorious penitentiaries in American history, housing infamous gangsters like Al Capone and George “Machine Gun” Kelly. “The Rock,” as inmates called it, was a prison in more ways than one. The view was as much a prison for the prisoners as the iron bars and barbed-wire. From their perspective, this stunning landscape appeared as ugly as the cells in which they were held. Their situation turned the beautiful landscape into another barrier separating them and freedom.
We only see what we want to see. Beautiful scenery can either make us breathless with its wonder, or limit us by the restrictions it places on us. We can see a marriage that’s worth fighting for or find a reason to throw it all away. We can find opportunity in the circumstances we are in or see…
