Through the Window

As Nanny (my 95-year-old mother-in-law) sat in her recliner and stared out the windows in her den, she said softly, “A window just helps people.”

“Yes, it does. We can watch what’s going on outside.”

From her “blue chair,” a blue recliner with a motorized lift under it, she could watch for the mail lady, watch her neighbor remove and then build a new, large deck (all by herself!), watch a young couple move out of their house across the street and a new family move in, watch people in the neighborhood take their daily walks along the sidewalks, watch school buses and other vehicles go by… Although she was no longer able to take daily strolls or work in her yard, she stayed “connected” to the outside world from her “blue chair,” which was her favorite place in the entire house.

I have a favorite place in my house, too: the sofa in the sunroom. Since I don’t have a street view, as Nanny does, I watch birds (and squirrels!) at the bird feeders on the deck. I frequently see deer grazing on clover. I watch fawns running in happy circles. I see tall pine trees and assorted hardwoods, which are beautiful in all seasons. But, if I go to a window on another side of my house, the view changes.

While reflecting on the different things that can be seen through a window, I came across this quote:

Each of us is looking out at life

from a different window in the same house.

Indeed, our life, as well as our environment, looks different for each of us, depending on what we see through the windows of our souls.

 

View from inside the Waterside Chapel in Palmetto Bluff, South Carolina