The Observer Effect

In Science, there's something called the observer effect. Basically, the act of observing something changes that thing so that you can never really hope to get a truly accurate observation. For example, the way that we see something is when light bounces off the object. Normally, since light particles are essentially massless, the effect they have on an object's position or momentum is basically negligible. But if you try to look at an electron, which is also basically massless, it's kind of like bouncing a basketball off of another basketball. The point I'm trying to make here is that the way we observe the world has an effect on the world. If we are ungrateful and believe that there is not enough, the world is going to oblige us. If we are angry and want to spread some of our pain around, we're going to find that the world has a way of returning that pain back to us, often sevenfold. I'm not talking about some kind of hippy dippy "The Secret" manifestation stuff where all you've got to do is keep imagining a trash bag full of $100 bills and sooner or later said trash bag will show up on your doorstep. But consider this. When Jesus's disciples told him that 5000+ people were hungry and all they had with them was two loaves of bread and three fish, what was the first thing that Jesus did? He gave thanks. He started with gratitude. He started with the observation that He had more than enough, and He turned out to be right. The way that we look out at the world matters. Our attitudes, our observations change things. I realize that not every child who has ever dreamed of winning a gold medal at the Olympics ends up achieving their dreams, but I can guarantee that there is not a single Olympian out there who did not believe in their bones that they could do it. Nobody accidentally stumbles into a gold medal, or an Oscar, or a multi billion dollar business. There are a million moving parts in the world around us, but our perspective, our hopes and fears, our humility and our pride, our forgiveness and our anger all ripple out and change the trajectory of those moving parts, for better or worse. When we reach out with love and gratitude and humility, we can't help but transform the path ahead into a brighter, warmer, more abundant way.