WINDOWS

Lesley's Blog

My most favorite place to sit in our home is in front of the large window which overlooks our Koi pond, surrounded by beautifully colorful plants. I watch small birds come to visit the flowers and drink from the water and enjoy the larger water birds on the lake just beyond our backyard. Our house has several large windows and I love how light and airy it feels.

 

Windows as symbols help us consider what brings light into our lives so that we can feel a sense of expansion and joy.They also can lead us to consider how we perceive the outside world. When I look at the Koi pond, for example do I just see the beauty or do I see all the work that needs to be done to take care of it? Or can we live the balance of enjoying the beauty and also being glad to do the gardening that keeps it beautiful? Do we see the cup empty or full, do we feel that basically people are kind or do we distrust and live in fear?

Windows are not just for looking out, they are also for looking into. We all have seen images in movies, or read about in books, of individuals staring through the window at the inside of a house or store with a longing to be on the inside instead of where they are, on the outside. They are longing for things they do not have or for experience that are not part of their current lives. We all have had feelings, at some point in our lives, of "being on the outside looking in", feeling left out or not good enough to be included, with all the shame and maybe anger that arises with those experiences. Longings take us away from gratitude and into a place of deficit. But when we allow ourselves to be filled up spiritually then we know we are good enough and that we and the God of our understanding are the only ones authorized to make that judgment. And we know that in this moment we have what we need, even if that is not what we want.  



(A house of many windows)

 

When night comes, windows change into something quite different. We can see ourselves in them, like mirrors. The symbolism now changes, for when we look in the mirror it is there that we can connect with our shadow, those aspects of ourselves that we usually keep hidden, but that still influence our behavior, often in not very pleasant ways. Can we allow those window mirrors to remind us to do our "shadow work" and seek ways to bring the unconscious to consciousness. When we do that, not only are we more in control of our behaviors but we also experience more energy and a sense of enlargement of ourselves.

Windows are usually by definition transparent. There are increasing demands for tranparency in the society and usually what we mean is that we want others (especially people in power) to be open and honest in their actions. We want truthful information so that we can understand, make informed decisions and trust. It is easy to ask that of others but a lot more difficult to ask that from ourselves. We all lie to ourselves and others; sometimes those are sins of commission and sometimes they are sins of omission. Either way, lack of truth damages ourselves and others. Sometimes we simply do not know what the truth really is. But what is important is to hold in our hearts a deep desire to be truthful to ourselves and to search for and be alert for those times when we stray from that, which can be remarkably often once we begin to try to see clearly through that window. It can be frightening to think about living with such honesty and extremely challenging  and yet eventually it brings us a remarkable internal peace and freedom.

On the far side of the Koi pond is an Agaste plant from which the hummingbirds love to feed from. They are so beautiful and fascinating to watch, bringing the joy to my heart that they symbolize. When you see a hummingbird, allow it to remind you to find the joy in your life and to seek the sweetness in all things. Playful by nature, hummingbirds are also hardworking, encouraging us to seek that balance for ourselves. In order to work as hard as they have to, so they can maintain their life, they have to do certain things to ensure that they conserve their energy. So hummingbirds can let us know to get enough rest and not take ourselves to the edge of exhaustion. Finally we all can see that they do amazing things, like no other bird in fact, and maybe they can lead us to know that sometimes the seemingly impossible can be accomplished.

So clean your windows (or at least the ones you look out of the most) and enjoy what you see and is reflected back to you. Feel the joy and dream far reaching dreams so you know that you are enough and have the resources to do and be amazing.