It’s All Just Outside My Window

I’m on my third topic for this post today.  I just couldn’t get into anything I thought of writing about.  My eyes keep wandering to the goings on outside my window.

There’s a big ash tree stripped of all its leaves, its bare branches crossing each other this way and that.  A bird just landed on a lower branch.  Then there’s the oak, hanging on to a few  bunches of dried leaves, the way that oaks do.

I have watched these trees grow for over thirty years.  I’ve enjoyed their shade on hot Georgia summer days, reveled in their beauty with a dusting of snow, listened to the excitement of the birds in spring coming and going, singing their little songs, enjoyed the peaceful serenity of the changing of the leaves and the passage into the deep quiet of winter.

I love trees.  I love everything about them.  I love how their roots grow deep into the soil.  I love how their branches reach out to us and up to the heavens.  I love how creatures-like birds and squirrels-make their homes in them.  The oxygen they give us.  The beauty they reveal.  The lessons they teach us.

I love the brilliant blaze of the sugar maple in the fall.  I love the way the leaves dance on a quaking aspen in a breeze.  I love the steadfast posture of the beech and how paper birch tree trunks stand out in the northern winter landscape.  I love the different textures and contrasting hues of different kinds of pines and spruces and firs growing side by side.

My neighbor’s yellow kitty  just crossed the road to patrol the barns on this side.  He’s a regular on our property and we enjoy watching his comings and goings as we sit outside in the warmth of the late afternoons.

It’s a cold, but sunny day here today.  The sky is big and blue.  On days like this, I appreciate how precious life is.  On days like today, when the house is quiet and I’m in my office with this view in front of me, I can pretend that this is all there is: life, just life, and nothing else.  But when I finish here, there’s breakfast to be made, pills to take, laundry to fold, dishes to wash.

I’ll get a fire ready in the wood stove this afternoon.  Empty the ash pan.  Fill the wood bin.  Make the beds.  But I’ll still be thinking about the peace of this morning, the quiet of my time alone in the freshness of a new day, the bounty of nature just outside my window.  I think I’ll go for a walk.

Share with us in the comments below your favorite things outside your window.