Change the Window Every. Few Days?
It’s late afternoon and the sunshine is blazing through the full-length window connected to my deck door. It’s almost annoying...except that I love the sun and in the winter the daylight is far too brief. So if this sun is annoying why am I looking out that window. Well...any of us who stands and stares out a window collecting or avoiding thoughts—-you have a favorite window—I know you do. This one is mine. I like the one above the sink too. There is a moment each morning and each evening when the sunlight reaches the horizon and comes to join us or says “good night.”
Earlier today, I looked out that. Other window and pondered how different the view might be if those two windows were in other places or in opposite places?
You see, I choose the windows I use to provide my picture of the world. Sure some circumstances have placed a limited number of windows in front of me from time to time, yet still I choose these. Through these windows I can only see part of the world out there. The rest of the.universe is only evident through my memory or my imagination. So while staring out I have this little slice of “real” and the rest is my construction. Now my construction is just as real because I don’t stop and say to myself—“Jim you only see the river—your thinking of tomorrow’s or yesterday’s
dinner is not being required of you...you are choosing it . You are giving it the window in your mind and it is through that window you seek peace and joy.
So from my favorite window I See the river flowing in front of me and then I move my focus to the river as it comes toward me. I have no need to see it after it passes. Yet, I don’t try to look too far upstream either. Maybe that’s why this is my favorite window. The best views from there remind me about what is a healthy state of mind for me. I can do very little about what is past and the time is not quite here for the future, but it will come. In it’s own time and pass before me and I won’t miss it. I see the sunset through this window and it’s often the time when the Western sky is at it’s most beautiful. If it’s not the western sky where the sun is setting, we’re all in a bunch of trouble.
Even if this is my favorite view on things, I’m reminded by other windows that it’s not the only perspective. Sometimes it is good to find a new perspective. This can. Bring a different set of realities into focus or allow me to see better what someone else is seeing when they look outside and inside for that matter. It also reminds me to invite people to look through my window and ask to look through theirs from time to time.
How often do we need to change the view? I’m not sure, yet I know I find. More peace and joy when I do it. So in the spirit of experimentation why don’t we all do it a little more? Maybe if we switched windows we could. Get a sense for. What looks the same no matter what window you see it from. I think sometimes we. Forget the similar things and focus on the differences. By looking out. A different window and talking about it with someone you might find out that you are both calling something a cloud, however the clouds you see are nothing. Like the clouds they see, in fact, you are talking about the same word but two entirely unique things so arguing about clouds isn’t k at all helpful.
Okay... become aware of your favorite windows, change your view or imagine what would be in your world if you used a different window. Know you choose the windows you look from most of the time. Invite others to look out your window and ask them what they see after they look. There’s no real need to tell them what they are looking at or what they might see until they’ve taken a good look.
Well it’s the night outside my window now and time to close the windows. To my soul—if that’s what your eyes really are.
I
Maybe tomorrow we talk about the difference between. Windows and mirrors?
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