2-5-23 Outside the Window


Outside the Window

2-5-23

Carrie Keiser


I have thought about “outside the window”, the view often changes in life. Outside my window as a kid a saw the beautiful mountains surrounding the Missoula/Frenchtown valley with the pulp mill in the foreground.  

That is a view that is home to me, it tugs at my heartstrings and occasionally leaks from my eyes.  

For a few short years the view was the trees my great grandparents planted and the porch my great grandpa built.

The next view I had was that of big city life in the deserts of Phoenix and then Las Vegas. There is something quite extraordinary when you round that last bend and the Vegas Valley opens up to expose this metropolis sprung up in the middle of the desert.  

For the last 20+ years we have had a flatlander view of eastern Montana, while it’s not the beauty of the mountains that are my heart’s home, it has it’s own beauty. Of course, we have Makoshika which is full of surprising beauty.

I was awed by the ever-changing views out my plane window when we flew to South Africa in 2012. What an extraordinary  place.

My mind goes to wondering how my children felt and feel as they view the world outside their windows. One is currently in brand-new place looking out of her very first apartment windows on a world full of opportunities. One will experience many different views of the desert in Arizona. How will these windows shape them?  How have the windows the other kids have looked through changed and shaped them?

There are so many other places I’d like to see “outside the window”.

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