Pages

May 11, 2016

A Window to the World


A window to the world,
over the kitchen sink.

This was one of my mother’s major considerations when house hunting, which was done more than two dozen times due to the nature of her husband’s career. 

Her best loved homes provided a view to the outside world as she orchestrated meals and mounds of dishes for eight. In the Georgia pines a tiny house gifted her with backyard views of her young children at play and clothes drying on the line. The St. Louis house had an expansive bird perching hedge just beyond the sink glass. In Minnesota and Virginia, split level designs raised the view beyond the sink to mid tree heights and vistas of neighboring yards. Across the years, from state to state, she enhanced the daily scenes with feeders inviting the birds, brilliant blooms spreading along a fence line or hanging in planters, and a picnic table welcoming meals outside. It was a priority, even I as a child knew, the kitchen window was a priority.


Then there came a house with many fine attributes, historic and gracious. It became our home despite lacking the longed for window above the kitchen sink. Progressively, across the decades of living there, the wall above the kitchen sink was transformed into an exhibit provoking thought and covered with beauty. She curated  an assemblage of small art prints, inspirational quotes, clever cartoons clipped from the paper, prayers, scripture, poems, paintings from greeting cards or magazines. The spread was taped and pinned, fitted and aligned as a publishing house would arrange and edit its best quarterly press release. As a young adult home to visit, reading mom’s collection above the sink became an honored tradition and fodder for deep conversation over morning coffee  ~ a window to the inner world of a our mother’s intensely creative mind and deeply spiritual soul. 



Linking with the communities at Coffee for the Heart, Tell His Story, & Give Me Grace.

10 comments:

  1. I enjoy a great view as I stand at the sink, too. A great scene can put you in an awesome mood.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So true. And without a scene, design your own!

      Delete
  2. I love the view over our kitchen sink. It looks out over the neighborhood, past the field where the men and womens's softball games are held, and up the hill into our little village.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. For sure, windows are our tie to community. Love imagining your "little village".

      Delete
  3. I have two corner windows over my sink. There's definitely something special about standing there, having the ability to look outside. I loved reading how your mother transformed this much-used space and gave it her personal stamp!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The soul can change a wall into a place of affirmation, worship, and inspiration. Appreciate your visit and thoughts.

      Delete
  4. What a beautiful tribute to your mother's gifted eyes.
    How beautifully she taught you to see:) I love my kitchen window, too;
    a sanctuary of sorts. Your words and image inspire me so.
    Love and thanks,
    Jennifer

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, exactly, a sanctuary! Imagination is a wondrous gift. A bare wall, transformed with elements that carry beauty, encouragement, and soul food. So pleased to have you stop by!

      Delete
  5. I hope beauty is finding you at your window still:)
    Love and joy to you,
    Jennifer

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So kind of you to stop by once again Jennifer! Yes, certainly, still musing over rivers of thought and streams of images as I gaze beyond the the kitchen glass. Writing privately in journals. Discerning a path back to public writing as a season of fermentation molds my heart.

      Delete