Updated: March 12,2021
When I was the little girl of a police officer, I liked police tv shows.
In particular CHiPs, which featured two officers who looked really cool in their sunglasses. The lens through which those officers looked at the world, to my naive mind, connoted a vantage point that was savvy, competent, and super cool. Fast forward a few decades after Ponch, to the bittersweet memory of a pair of rose-colored lenses we chose to prominently display at my mom's funeral. Those lenses, to my more mature mind, connoted a view of the world that was optimistic, hopeful, and positive.
When I work with kids of all ages, we discuss the lens through which they look at the world.
This speaks to the critical perspective through which we view things, and how our own experiences, biases, and outlooks influence they way in which we "see" an event.
Often, our lens needs to be cleaned from time to time, much like those highway patrol guys must have practically needed, or even how reality often added a film of clarity to the rose tint of optimism.
What affects the clarity of the lens with which we see the world?
When we consider our own perspective, our lens, it's interesting to consider how it has evolved, how it has been affected, and how clear it is. We wear glasses to provide acuity to our vision, and a lens covers our timepiece to protect its accuracy. Indeed, even a compass is covered by a lens of sorts, to ensure that it can guide as it should. Whether real or metaphoric, it is important to evaluate our lens from time to time. Is it clear? Is it blocked by another? Is its vantage point optimum to see what you need to? Would it benefit from a proverbial cleaning? And just maybe, could you stand a little tint of rose?
Written by Dr. Kate Tumelty Felice, YFFR Resilient Women Leader Conference Speaker
Dr. Kate Tumelty Felice Is one of the five speakers at the first annual, Resilient Women Leaders Conference, on March 20th, 2021. Dr. Kate Tumelty Felice is a Master Resiliency Trainer, subject matter expert, former law enforcement and current college professor and coordinator. Dr. Kate consults on and creates holistic well-being and resilience programs and teaches trauma-informed mindfulness in schools, for veterans and first responders. A central component of her programs and purpose is “Reciprocal Resilience”: helping helpers help themselves through helping others.
CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE RESILIENT women leaders conference: https://bit.ly/RWLC2021
