I sat on my couch today, the day before we move out of the house we have occupied for the last 35 years, and stared out the window. This is the same view I have seen all those years, watching the seasons change, watching the kids go to school and come home again, watching the cars go by. A woman walked by today in her "exercise" gear, hair in ponytail face glued to her phone. She was pushing a stroller by the way. With a baby in it. Both times, coming and going past the house, she was riveted to the phone. I judged her of course, of not caring for the baby. But maybe the phone was telling her that her mother in the hospital spent a bad night and they would need to go today for what might be their last visit. Or maybe her husband was texting her that he lost his job and now what are they gonna do? Or maybe she was checking baseball scores, or her stock portfolio, or watching another stupid cat video.
The Sycamore trees are dropping their leaves in a steady brown rain today. And the cars have a bustling quality to them as only they can do in the morning hours after the summer. A squirrel ambled across the road (ambled! how arrogant!). The blue jays in the neighborhood are quiet for now, they are usually much more vocal in the afternoon, swooping off invaders to their private domains.
What I see in stark reality though, is the empty walls on the house I inhabited. And the dust--YIKES--that has accumulated under the various pieces of furniture that hasn't been moved in a very long time. And the myriads of boxes piled high, waiting for the truck to remove them to a new place, where the view will be different out the window.
But in my mind, I see where the children sat on the floor to play a game. The kitchen where it seems a million meals were prepared, eaten and then cleaned-up after. I see in my mind, the laughs, tears and grumblings of years upon years. And I thank God that we were lucky enough, blessed enough to live in such a place. A good place. A safe place. A place to watch the leaves and the cars and life pass by. A place to call home.