A Room with a View

We are spending the weekend at the coast. Yesterday I went to visit a friend who lives here full time. They have a beautiful home on a little spit of land jutting out into the Bay. Everywhere you look from their home, there is an incredible view. Only the laundry room does not have a view. Until recently, theirs was the only home on their street. Now a new house is being constructed next door. My friend suggested that I go next door and look at the house, then come back to visit with her. She said that she was particularly curious about what I thought of the house.

I went in the front door. There were no handles on the doors, but front door opened easily and I proceeded to check out the place. As I made my way through tiny room after tiny room, I wondered why anyone would build such a rat maze of rooms, none of which took advantage of the incredible views afforded by the location. My impression was one of claustrophobia as I explored the house. When I decided to leave, I found that I could not open any of the doors to get back outside. Running from room to room, it seemed as if this very unwelcome place had made me its prisoner. Finally, I found one window which I was able to open and reach an outside deck from it.

Grateful to escape the house, I went back to visit with my friend. Telling her of my panicky experience of being locked in the unwelcome house, I asked if she would have been able to hear me yell for help. She said that she doubted that, but was just getting ready to check on me because I had been gone for so long. Then she said that the very same thing happened to her the previous week and she was force to jump from a window onto the heating and cooling equipment on the ground below.

Just as we were standing in her kitchen talking about our similar miserable experiences, we noticed an eagle diving toward the shallow water in the Bay. He struggled with something in the water and was forced to settle in the water floating like a seagull. After several aborted attempts, he was finally able to fly away carrying a huge fish in his talons. Scenes like this are what my friend sees every day because she has rooms with a view. Everyone needs a room with a view in life, both literally and figuratively.