For 8 hours a day (minus breaks to get up and move around), I work from my desk. I made the decision to re-arrange my office one day and pushed my desk against the wall so that I have a nice view out the windows and the decision was absolutely worth it. It gives me the opportunity of breaking up the monotony of working with views from outside the window. Last Friday I worked while watching the winds from hurricane Ian bending the trees in our yard and sending branches flying by, thankfully we were more on the outskirts so just lots of wind and rain. Then one night last year I was even able to witness a very bright meteorite light up the night sky That was a pretty cool thing to see.
Some times the view is pretty much the same, yard, trees, sunlight. Sometimes you see the neighbors, or someone walking through the park. Sometimes you find dogs on the lose scavenging in your yard (yes this has happened). There are also times one of the kids from the neighborhood tries to sneak up on the house and play ding-dong-ditch, that made me laugh until they did it when Emily was taking her nap. But my favorite thing to see is all the different wild life that shows up. I enjoy it so much that I have set up many things to attract more animals in view as well, lots of bird feeders and seeds. Unfortunately, this caused me to make the mistake of doing an amazon subscription on bird seed and well… I now have several bags of it it my garage.
One of my favorite reasons for living in a more rural area is getting to enjoy the sights that you don’t really see very often in a more crowded city or town. Every spring I get to see does and their fawns playing in our backyard and sometimes even see them in the middle of the day. I’ve seen opossums, owls, several cats and the occasional fox. Squirrels have apparently taken refuge in our yard, I once counted 6 different ones all spread out across the yard. They’re a comical bunch and I enjoy having them around, up until its gardening time when they like to steal my tomatoes.
As someone who also has a very active imagination, I’ll admit I’ve also had those moments where I can get lost looking out the window and just daydreaming in another world. Sometimes the lighting and view is just right to trigger that creative spirit and I’ll be thinking of adventures and plots and characters.
A short story is what you see when you look out of the window.
Mavis Gallant
Little Piece of Quiet 