Open Your Window to the World

It’s a wonderful thing to sit at a table with a pen and a page and an open window.

Windows. Eyes are a window to the soul, but windows are an invitation to the world. When I worked full time, I savored scenery from my office window. Can’t resist the view at church from ceiling to floor windows onto cattle pastures, live oaks, pond, sandhill cranes.

During tours in manor houses, I go immediately to the large casement windows overlooking gardens and lawns, distant views. Place a table near a window, and my fingers itch to write a letter or poetry in my journal. The Rochester Hills library had the genius to build alcoves with windows around the tables to look down on the river and bank of oak trees. Bok Tower Sanctuary build a Window-by-the-Pond on one side of a hut at the edge of a pond for “nature’s show,” soothing and absorbing and satisfying.

Windows should have a screen, if necessary, and open to fresh air, birdsong and pattering rain and windchime music.

Picture windows…French doors…blowing sheers…views…ways to dream about momentary pleasures during the day or evening or starry night.

At one office job, between letter typing and phone calls, I gazed at a distant tree in a small field, imagined myself beneath the branches, no clock, no schedule. That was my first prayer tree. (Others were found on lunchtime walks. Now that I’m retired, I’m looking for a current prayer tree. Can’t see the tops of the ones outside my writing window, and that’s part of the tree’s lure--top branches waving in the wind.)

So, why bring up windows and prayer trees? If you’re a poet or a writer, you already know. If you’re not, maybe you’re waiting for someone or trying to sort a problem or dreaming of faraway shores. Your window can offer that, and more. Dreaming out a window is like opening a delicious book, with quiet adventure ahead.

Wild sword ferns in a jam jar on the window ledge become a garden. Sheers waving in the breeze are elegance. Spring peepers or children laughing, lawn mowers, birds trilling are a symphony of life, no less than the gift of an orchestra.

My current favorite window is the one next to my writing table.

What’s yours?

“There’s a world out there. Open a window, and it’s there.” - Robin Williams