View with a Teapot

by ANODYNE
I wait a whole year to see the view in October from the sunroom windows. The oak, sassafras, and lone maple trees by the pond turn various shades of yellow from buttery to golden to amber. For a few days you live in Lothlorien, the whole room bathed in golden light of various shades. Even without the sun, the light in the room is golden. The view seems to glow and the layers of color add depth and richness to what you are seeing. It comes on quickly and lasts for only a fleeting few days depending on weather and wind. As enchanting as it is, I am not sure the eyes would stand this view for more than a few days to a week, the intensity of color is so pure.

During summer months our sunroom is bathed in a green underwater light. For this brief time in October we live in a golden world. Then there will be one startling morning when I look out and can truly see the condo pond out back. The leaves will have thinned dramatically, and then we begin to notice the beauty of the bone, the clean and sparse structure of the tree branches, a different kind of beauty. At night the moon will snag in the branches of the oaks. Enchantment returns after first snow and the pond is rimmed in white. On a night of a winter full moon, the trees will cast long black shadows on the snow. But for now, it is a golden world.

It's not unlike savoring a cup of tea. The view is never quite the same from year to year. There are shadings and nuances of color change. Some years the view, like a certain beloved tea, will be rich and mellow. Others years some vital point is missing and the view, like tea, might be thinned out slightly.

Like savoring a cup of tea with pervasive aroma, this view stops me dead in my tracks to pay attention to the moment. The pleasure is enhanced by its fleeting nature. The tea and the view will not necessarily be the same the next time I experience it. All I can do is pay attention now to what I see, smell, and taste. There is no perfect time during a day to wait take this all in. This may be the perfect moment in a day which intrudes heavily and with many negatives designed to distract me from what I am seeing, tasting, feeling, experiencing. For now, it is a golden world.