Window

The one word for today is WINDOW. Don't worry, this has nothing to do with Microsoft Corporation, which, I now realize, probably meant to use WINDOWS as a metaphor before the term became synonymous with an operating system that most people dislike. A WINDOW, as I am thinking of it, provides an opportunity, an opening, something which we can see through, that lets air, smells, or thoughts out, and lets fresh energy in. A WINDOW is like the in breath and the out breath.

Yesterday a friend of mine shared a recent experience with me. "I told him," she said. "I told him about what happened that weekend." She was referring to an incident about which she feels ashamed and humiliated. She does not tell many people, but she told someone who is helping her in her job search, someone she has come to trust.

"Do you think it is okay that I told him?" she asked me. Of course, I responded. The more he knows about you, the more he can help you. You are opening a window for him, when you open the window there is more room for him to give and more room for you to receive. She told me that she'd never thought of it that way before. I like that, she said.

Maybe I'm talking about doors, but for some reason I like thinking about windows. Windows can be opened or closed and I can stay where I am while still allowing for an exchange of giving and receiving. If it's a door I feel pressure to walk through it, to be on one side or the other. I can look through a window, I can see what's out there, I can open it, I can decide how I feel and then I can lift it open or pull it shut as I please.