Windows on the world

My mother battled cancer for 25 years but it was only in the last few weeks of her life that she needed full time nursing care. I was able to get her into a single room in a nursing home. Many times she thanked me for getting her a room of her own and most importantly, with a window. 

​Beyond the narrowing walls of her life, she was still able to feel a part of the world outside. The sun streaming through that window seemed to warm her frail frame and cheer her failing heart. I thought a lot about windows during those weeks as I sat beside her bed.

I realised we see the world beyond the window through the lens of our current life. We see it from our perspective. My mother looking out at the end of life, finding comfort in a blue sky and trees waving in the wind ... a child waiting with anticipation at the window for daddy to come home or someone on holidays, curled up by the fire, watching soft rain pattering on the windowpane. The view changes with the direction of our life.
 
And I realised that windows look in both directions.  While we look out on the world, we look in at life. Windows are our eyes and ears on the world if we take the time to look.

It wasn’t until I slowed the car and rolled down the windows that I realised I spend most of my days driving ‘through’ life without driving ‘in’ life. So, I’ve decided to walk because the pace is slower and the windows are always down. Craig Lounsbrough

Maybe we need to wind down the windows more often and take in the view and stop to wonder.

Driving with the windows down ... I love it! Its a long time since this car hit the road but despite so much of it falling apart, the windows remain and the view is great. 

Waves lap the shore ... the air heavy with a the smell of salt, fish and wet nets. If you peered through the window you might see the old fisherman hoeing into a hearty breakfast after a long night at sea. It was all there, the story of Brittany, told in a window as surely as if in the pages of a child's storybook.

I was trundling along in a bus in downtown San Francisco when this image caught my eye. I jumped out at the next stop and ran back to take a photo. It was inviting and intriguing. Was it a burglar escaping with his heist? A young man escaping thorough the window after his parents had grounded him?  I like to think the oversized shoe is a sign that whoever he was, he was out for adventure.  

Airing the cushions or a a delightful window seat? What a great place to sit curled up  with a good book watching the world go by. I love the shutters thrown open to let in the world and wonder who pulls them closed when nighttime falls? 

Someone's been for a morning swim. Mother and daughter, sisters, friends? I wonder about these women and the lives they lead in this city of water.  Like so much of Europe, the window is the only access to drying the washing - its a way of life.

If you'd peeped through the windows of this Romanesque building in the early 1900s, you would have seen a Coffee Palace (hotel), concert hall, shops and warehouses. In 1930s you'd have found offices for Sydney City Council, and the City Library. Between1959-1971 it was almost demolished. It is now a fully restored shopping complex called QVB and the original windows are truly magnificent.

Windows overlooking Westerham, home town of Sir Winston Churchill

Magnificent windows in Bassano del Grappa

'Garden" window in Rome

Historic window in Prague 1580

This window has a sad story. The curtains tell a tale of disintegration of a home; perhaps a relationship. I wonder what happened, when the love stopped; who stopped caring?

Every window has a story. Behind each window there is love and dreams, plans and disappointments, grief and loss, joy and successes. Sometimes there's chaos and more often order. But always there's people just like you and me trying to live life the best way they can.

We are all windows to each other.  I can peer at you through the glass pane or open the window wide and not only see you more clearly but allow you to discover me in the full light of day. I can choose to take the time to get to know your story and offer you mine.  

Real relationships are the product of time spent, which is why so many of us have so few of them. Craig Lounsbrough

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