West End

I love the sunlight coming from the West. I’m not really totally sure of the reasons. It could be that the bedroom window in my parent’s house on 9th Street was facing the West. A lot of times as a kid, I’d come home from school and lay on my bed to do my homework. Sometimes I’d drift off to sleep, with the soft low light seeping in through that window, like some syrupy sleep potion. I’d dream sweet dreams about the future, about love, about accomplishments. Wonderful dreams, none of which I now can remember. Fall naps on school days. Winter naps on weekends. Summer was for fun, so there was no time for naps then.

Fall sunshine was my favorite. After all the leaves had fallen. I remember being able to look out that high window by standing up on my mattress. I loved to watch the cool winds of Autumn blow through the giant Magnolia tree that grew just outside, and watch those huge brown leaves tumble. I loved those solitary minutes that I was able to steal, as the Western sun light filtered in through that window.

At at our old house on Elm street, our living room had one window which faced West. I used to sit in my recliner many days, especially after 2011 and doze off in the evenings and daydream. In the Fall when the sunshine was “just right” it gave me a feeling of comfort and sometimes even euphoria to have the sweet sunshine lull me. I know, it sounds crazy…but it’s true. It could have been the lingering after effects of a long time on the heart-lung machine the year before. I like to think instead, it was something magical

It never happened to me while we lived in Mom and Dad’s old house on 7th street… from 2009 to 2011. The windows just weren’t in the right position. Something didn’t feel quite the same. I did take quite a few naps with baby Rue and baby Eli there though…..just like I’ve napped with Evie and Ellie in the ensuing years.

Since we moved from the old house to our place here in Ringgold, I haven’t had as many episodes of the “western light daydreaming” as I used to. We’ve certainly got plenty of light coming from the West though. We’ve got four big windows and a set of French doors! It could be light overload sometimes! Especially during the late Fall through early spring, when the leaves are off the trees.

It’s a gorgeous Western view from here though. Lookout Mountain looms just to the right as I walk out our door, and I’ve photographed many a wondrous sunset going down over the mountain. I’ve made pictures of yellow and orange full moons sinking into the eastern Alabama farmlands. I’ve marveled at the hue and color with which nature paints the heavens. What a privilege to be alive and be on this tiny planet on the edge of the Milky Way, in amongst billions of other solar systems. I don’t question why we are here, I just revel in it!

Just last weekend, I was sitting on the couch in our living room and it was late afternoon. It had been a tiring week, and as the light crept in through the closed shades, I slipped off briefly into that nether world between sleep and wakefulness, where the mind makes all things, present, past and future possible. I stayed there for only the briefest minute, but it was enough so that I knew I still could. I still could be in that precious space where time stands still.

I really hope for another decade or so here in this wondrous world. I hope if I get too old or infirm to let anybody know what I want or need, somebody will remember this and roll me over to the window in the West so I can see and feel the light shine in, and perhaps eventually find my way home.