There once was a woman who had a ritual of having a cup of tea and looking out her kitchen window. Each morning she would see her neighbor hanging her laundry to dry on the clothes line in her yard. They were always dirty, spotty, dusty. She thought to herself, “What is wrong with her? Such a slob.” And she shared her negative thoughts with others.
One day, a friend came to visit. The woman and her friend sat at the table in her kitchen, having tea. “There she goes again,” said the woman. “filthy, dirty clothes on the line, she never gets her clothes clean!”
Her friend looked out the window and said, “I don’t think it’s her laundry that’s dirty.” She takes her napkin and wipes the kitchen window. “It’s your window that’s dirty.”
The woman found her glass cleaner and a rag, then thoroughly cleaned her window. With each swipe on the window, she realized her neighbor’s laundry was becoming cleaner and cleaner.
The problem was never her neighbor’s dirty laundry; it was the woman’s perspective from her own dirty window.
Sometimes the imperfections and faults we see in others are really not about them; it’s about us fixing ourselves first and seeing with clean, positive eyes. When our eyes are clear, we can see the good in others.
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