See Past the Prison

Life can be beautiful. It can also be really ugly. The difference often lies in your perspective.

Most people consider San Francisco Bay one of the most stunning views in California. The Golden Gate Bridge. Mountains. Bike trails. The sparkling bay waters. 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. Not only were the prisoners restrained by iron bars and barbed wire but by the view itself. From their perspective, the stunning landscape was as ugly as the prison cells that held them. Their circumstances twisted the beauty around them into yet another wall separating them from freedom.

We see what we choose to see. Beautiful scenery can either take our breath away with wonder or suffocate us with the limitations it puts upon us. We can see a marriage that’s worth fighting for or find a reason to throw it all away. We can see opportunity in our circumstances or see restriction.

The good life you’re after may be right there in front of you. You just need the eyes to see it.