View From My Window

… now I sit by the window, inside but still connected to the world outside… ~ Mary Oliver

As a student of metaphysics I often think of what Antoine de Saint-Exupery so clearly stated:

Behind all seen things lies something vaster; everything is but a path, a portal or a window opening on something other than itself.

Acrylic on canvas, K. M. Anderson

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I know a man whom I respect enormously. I’m fortunate to count him as both a friend and a mentor. I’ve mentioned him here at Whisperia previously.

His name is Heber and he writes a daily blog. This blog is really wonderful, because with his short expositions, he encourages readers to think about something they might not ordinarily consider during the course of their typical day. Again, these are short compositions that don’t take much time for the reader to ingest. Heber doesn’t provide ready answers, but leaves things open, encouraging readers to think about myriad matters and various aspects of life. Some matters are profound. Others are less so.

So, each day, he provides a kind of thought prompt for his readers. I admire him for, among other things, his decision to act creatively on a daily basis.

Recently, he wrote about the differences between two people, traveling to a common destination, riding side by side on a bus in England. (1) One man, named Blythe, notices the vegetation growing in the region and thinks of people who have lived in the town in previous centuries, including a man who was led down the main street of the town to be burnt at the stake. He thinks of the brutality of religious wars and institutions...

In contrast, the man seated next to Blythe is bored. He cannot wait for the bus ride to be concluded.

These two people are riding on the same bus, taking the same trip. Yet, their experiences of this journey are completely different.

As Heber wrote in his concise blog:

One is engaged, thinking about what he’s seeing, thinking about what it’s like to live in the place he calls home. The other has been on the same bus ride and is bored. Two people can live similar lives in a way. One finds it fascinating, and the other is tired of it.

Heber goes on to say:

I want to sit next to the guy who’s fascinated, too. But, I also want to be like that guy.

It’s uncanny how often something about which Heber writes concurrently occupies my own thoughts. In the previous Whisperia article entitled, “Infinite Ways to Paint a Sunflower,” (2) I wrote about how choosing creativity enables us to keep ourselves open to love, to act in a loving manner, to stay engaged with life and to avoid becoming closed and bitter.

We each look upon life, our world, and our experiences from the window of our own soul. We each have the power to choose - moment by moment, hour after hour, day by day, year after year - with what mindset we will gaze from the windows of our souls. Will we look upon the vistas before us with ire or with joy? Will we look with cynicism or with hope? Are we interested, attentive and engrossed? Or, are we inattentive, unenthusiastic and uncaring? Do we see with our eyes wide open? Or do we observe harshly?

Our most important mission here is to love and to allow ourselves to be loved. As Viktor Frankl wrote:

...I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth - that Love is the ultimate and highest goal to which man can aspire.

Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love. (3)

By love, we don’t mean simply hedonism or desire. We mean real love, which is always open, always seeking connection, and always searching for truth. It requires that we abandon any obsessive preoccupation with ourselves. It requires that we look interestedly and receptively through the windows of our soul.

Whether looking out our windows or looking in, this is not of the utmost importance. What’s really important is how we choose to see.

Until next time,

K. M. Anderson

PhD, Metaphysics

PhD, Spiritual Counseling

Whisperia

P. S.

If you’d like a thought prompt, meaning something to lift you from your usual mental patterns, I highly recommend stopping by my friend’s, blog. It will cost you nothing, except the few moments to read it and to consider. Here is the link:

https://hebertaylor.blogspot.com/2025/05/a-rural-looker.html?m=1

NOTES

1. Heber Taylor, “A Rural Looker,” hebertaylor.blogspot.com, Tuesday, May 27,2025.

2. K. M. Anderson, “Infinite Ways to Paint a Sunflower,” whisperia.substack.com, May 16, 2025.

3. Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning, free pdf Penguin Random House Ebury Publishing, 1992, p. 39.