Growing up I often heard my mom say that her dream was to have a house with a view. I think about that simple statement a lot and how hopeful she sounded when she said it. I did wonder what that really meant to her.
We lived on a farm from 1956 to 1959, and I remember her staying up late at night and looking out the window. In the winter the farm could be desolate and barren looking. I always wondered what she saw in the dark of night. The road we lived on was a long straight dirt road and you could see cars headlights long before it passed the house. Maybe she was waiting for someone.
Daddy worked in Myrtle Beach during the winter and it was just mom and us three kids. When I would ask her what she saw, she would just say shhh, listen. What did she see and hear in the shadows? You could hear the hounds barking and the howl of the wind.
In the daytime the view from the window was beautiful. We had a pecan tree out front and a tree-lined creek down in the hollow. You heard the birds singing their songs and deer drinking from the creek. I guess mom was afraid of the night when the view from the window was dark and full of shadows.
Many years later when mom was in her 90s she was fading in her health so she came to live at my home. I remembered how she used to always look out the windows so we put up bird feeders in front of different windows around the house. From the living room and dining room, we had an amazing view of our garden.
All day she could see the birds and flowers. When we got home from work she would give us the daily bird report. Sometimes when she was on the phone you could hear her telling her friends about the hummingbirds, how beautiful the roses were and how she could see the ducks in the pond. When we brought her to our home there were swans in the lake that we had never seen before or since. Mom said that they had come for her.
On the last night that mom was alive she had me open the window so she could see outside, and she told me to open a window so that her soul would be able to leave the room. Finally, after all these years I asked her what she saw when she used to always look out the window. Mom smiled and said I see your daddy walking up the dirt road coming toward the house. He has a smile on his face and he told me he was coming to take me home. A few moments later she smiled and winked at me and then she was gone.
Point of View:
Each window has its own view. The view from the window is different for each of us. We should never imagine what we will see rather we should let the view surprise us and unravel the beauty for our eyes to discover. The view is never the same nor should we hope it would be. Some of us will see the flowers in bloom and hear the birds sing. Others will see only shadows and hear the roar of the thunder.
As we live our life we will see the view from many windows and through many seasons. If we let it the view will always amaze us and unveil its secrets. In life, we meet many people. Each one will be different and they too may amaze us and share their view with us.
How often do we look out the window to see the view? To pause and take a look allows us to see things we miss when we walk by the window and just take a glance. It allows us to slow down and truly see. It allows us to pause, reflect and understand the views we see in life. Every window opens to a different view and a different opportunity.
Larry,
Just lovely! How beautiful that your mother saw your father through that window. Eventually, all of us will go home. May we have as wondrous of an experience as you describe.?
Thank you so much. She was the happiest person I’ve ever known.
?Again, how lovely!?
OK, it’s amazing how many stories and poems we write are so very different yet so very similar. This work and my Windows and Doors have not one connection yet so many similarities. Life, its channels, the journey and hope that they will move through these closures and openings providing different outcomes as we help, walk with or hold back the next transition. Amazing story. Love it!
Seems we may have a common journey
The really strange thing is I wrote this article at least two years ago. Way before we connected. They always say life puts you in the path of people that you should know
The metaphor of the window lends itself to many interpretations.
We opened the window slowly, living, reading, knowing. We pushed the doors, at first heavy, we made them lighter as we learned to learn. And what we can see over time depends, for the most part, on how much effort we’ve made to open that window wide open. Everyone’s privileged observatory is based on a set of these factors; when we think, when we write, when we are called to give our opinion, we rely on one of these pedestals: sources of information, circles of relationships, life experiences, or on all three, and the way we see things changes based on the perspective we decide to take.
Your Mom obviously chose to have a positive view of the world around her, how lucky for her and for you!
Thank you. She always used to say when I got negative that I needed to count my blessings. I have never forgotten to sit down at the end of the day and count my blessings.
No question that everyone sees the world differently. I believe that the positive ones have a happier view of all things and so have a healthier life because of their perspective. Negativity is defeating and depressing not only for the person with that view but can infect those around them, too.
Goals are the spice of life. They are the essence of motivation. Pursue them and reach them serves. To feel alive. But what matters, more than what they bring you, is who you become on the way that you travel to get to the goal. To get more you have to become more. And you become it during the journey.
Great insight you always add value with your comments
Simply beautiful Larry! I am taking more time today to enjoy and appreciate God’s creation. Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful story and your gift of writing!!
Thank you so much Work for your kind words. Yes while we have to work in life. It is important to find time to enjoy life.
Hello Larry, your thought process is a refined one. Rightly said that view from the same window is different for people.
I liked the comment that One should not work with fixed preconcived ideas, but allow life to unfurl it’s surprises…One must allow oneself, make available for life to be explored.
Usually people are afraid of the u known hence desire the life to happen / function a certain way…but that could be depriving of a better life..
Sandeep
Thank you for your insights and for taking the time to read my articale.
This is such a beautiful rendition of the deeper meaning in life, Larry! I wish I could conjure up an image even half as beautiful. You have given me an inspiration to change my world-view and look ever more closely for things we miss in ‘Mother Nature,’ the divinity in the ordinary and the deepest philosophies in the mundane. Just remarkable!
Thank You!
My dear friend thank you so much for your kind words. Sometimes I feel like when I write is so primitive compared to others ones that I read. It means a lot to me that you feel that way and take the time to comment and read thank you my friend
Larry, this is such a lovely story. I can picture your mother now looking out the window with joy in her heart for the sunny side of life.
Thank you Arlene. Very poetically put. Your comments mean a lot to me
This is heartwarming beautiful, Larry. We do see things uniquely. Person to person. Day to day. I think your mom chose to see the peaceful, the lovely, the natural beauty. I wonder if it was fear of the night shadows or dreams bathed in mystery. You were a model son to her.
Thank you Jane. I was raised to look at life simply. I was taught to not complicate life, but to always seek the beauty and poetry of life.