July - Sacred Perspective

What do you see when you out your window? Recently, I heard a webinar interviewer use this question when asking the speakers to introduce themselves. The first one responded with her name and said, “I see my neighbor’s roof”. Hank Lentfer, the second speaker, responded with a big smile on his face said, “I see gift!” He is a sound recordist and someone imbued with the joy of living evoked by spending years listening deeply to voices all around him. While the webinar was interesting, what touched me was interviewer’s question, so for the next few days I carried it with me, allowing it to bring me back to mindfulness.

One morning as I was chewing on the question and looking out the window, I noticed unusual movement just outside the fence in the back yard. The newborn fawn pictured above had evidently been placed there by a doe and was peacefully getting used to being in the world. What a gift! I couldn’t stop gazing at the perfect patterned brown fur and soulful eyes. I saw the Universe’s gift of emergence.

Later that day, through the window of my eyes, I read questions posed by Thomas Berry in an excerpt from The Sacred Universe: What do you see? What do you see when you look up at the sky at night at the blazing stars against the midnight heavens? What do you see when the dawn breaks over the horizon? What are your thoughts in the fading days of summer as the birds depart on their southward journey, or in autumn when the leaves turn brown and are blown away? What are your thoughts when you look out over the ocean in the evening? What do you see?

If my window looks out at a living Universe, as Thomas goes on to propose, I will see a community of existence which is guardian, healer, and teacher. I will see the great cosmic ritual of day changing into night and one season giving way to another. I will see the deeper reality of things where there is not anything that is not holy, sacred. And my response will be like that of a recipient of a great gift – gratitude, wonder and awe.

What do you see when you look out your window?