The view from here

Cape Cod Morning
Edward Hopper

All I could see from where I stood
Was three long mountains and a wood;
I turned and looked another way,
And saw three islands in a bay.
So with my eyes I traced the line
Of the horizon, thin and fine,
Straight around till I was come
Back to where I'd started from;
And all I saw from where I stood
Was three long mountains and a wood.
Over these things I could not see;
These were the things that bounded me;
And I could touch them with my hand,
Almost, I thought, from where I stand.
And all at once things seemed so small
My breath came short, and scarce at all.

From, Renascence
Edna Vincent Millay


At this moment in time, our mutual view is a computer screen. But if I glance to the left, I see the little garden view framed by this window. What do you see? From here, I can't see Puget Sound or the Olympic Mountains or the beautiful sunrise over the Cascades. Sometimes my view seems small, but then again, views are all relative. To put things in perspective, there are hospital walls and cubicle walls and nursing home walls. And so our world contracts as we age until the view eventually goes inward. And what will that view be?