Light Through the Curtain

The morning sun shines through the semi-sheer curtain over my kitchen window, turning white into a warm apricot.

One would not normally consider a kitchen curtain as soothing, yet here I sit peacefully enjoying its glow.

I have grown to love the subtle details of nature.

I grew up in a small coastal town in Eastern Canada where nature grandly greets you the moment you step outside. When that is all you have known, it is easy to take for granted. I certainly did, at least until I moved. Living miles away from marine air, I had often felt deprived of nature, even though there are many city parks and I live within an hour’s drive of the Rocky Mountains. However, these beautiful areas required a trip.

Slowly, somewhat out of desperation, I began to reframe what I saw, shifting my focus from what was missing to what was present. In time, my tiny yard became a world of its own, from the ladybugs that appear with the first green grass to the crows landing in the evergreen with twigs in their beaks to build a safe nest.

The more I noticed, the more I appreciated simpler things. The changing shape of a drifting cloud instead of a stray piece of trash blowing across the road. The reflection of a sunset on a neighbouring high-rise instead of the density around it. The brilliant autumn colours on a small shrub outside a doctor’s office instead of the absence of grass and trees.

I discovered so much vibrancy in what we often think of as ordinary.

On this morning, I received a gift because today nature came in through my window.

~ Sandra