While doing yard work this past weekend, I noticed that two boxwood bushes planted under my garage windows had grown tall enough to cover part of the bottom pane. I hadn’t paid them much attention before, mainly because the sunlight they blocked wasn’t very noticeable. Whenever I was in the garage during the daytime, plenty of sunlight came in through the open door; and at night I turned on the overhead lights.

Because my garage is side-entry, its windows—and the bushes under them—are on the front side of the house. In fact, they’re closer to the street than any of the house’s other windows. I realized that letting the bushes along the garage wall get overgrown like that gave the house an untidy appearance to anyone passing by. So I trimmed them back, and now they look much neater, with the tops of the bushes just below the windows:
 

Two windows in a brick wall with neatly trimmed bushes under them. 

But I should have cut them back last year when they got above the height of the windows, even though the neighbors probably wouldn’t have thought they looked overgrown then. Even though I don’t often look out the garage windows (which have white blinds) or think about how much light should come through them, when windows get partially blocked they’re still noticed subconsciously. And because whatever surrounds us in daily life shapes our view of the world, a simple thing like bushes growing too high in front of a window can cause us to perceive the world as slowly getting darker, gloomier, and full of obstacles.

From now on, I’ll keep in mind that to allow more light into our lives, generally, we first have to pay attention to whatever little things might be blocking it.

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

2 Comments

  1. Great advice…ridding our sight line of any obstructions. Wish our neighbors would take these words to heart. The eunonymus hedge they planted more than 30 years ago has grown as tall as trees and is encroaching upon the side of our house. Over the years we’ve either trimmed the hedge back ourselves or had it done professionally. The neighbors seem to prefer having their own house nearly covered on all sides by the hedge. I can only imagine the trapped moisture rotting the structure slowly, but surely. To each his own, I guess.

    • I had neighbors like that several years ago… the woman had no concept of landscaping whatsoever, but she decided that she wanted a hedge along the property line, and she planted all sorts of random stuff. Thankfully, she has since moved. The new owners thought about putting in some new landscaping, but apparently decided it was too big of a job, for which I can’t blame them. I’ve had to trim back the hedge (if it can even be called that) several times.

  2. Pingback: Nurturing Thursday: Images of Peace | Light Words

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