7:30 BELLS: If the Bells Fall Silent, Move your Window

What we see depends on where we build our windows--as this picture of the new house going up at the Farm shows. What stunning views we miss if our windows are in the wrong place, or too small.

We grow up in a house with the windows already in place. Sometimes those windows are right for us, but sometimes they aren't. We're born into a house whose windows are determined by our family background, our culture, our education, our religion. This can make it hard to move the windows, because sometimes we don’t even know our view is being limited.

Eventually we may feel unease, realize we can’t hear any bells ring through these windows, or only hear them dimly.

So I ask myself, what am I missing? What can't I hear? Am I looking at the world squeezed through someone else’s determination of what I should see? I want to build my own house, decide where I want the windows to be. 

Sometimes to move the window, you have to start by tearing down the walls that hold it, brick by brick. To have a life that continues to thrive and grow, you have to keep moving the windows.

Whenever I move a window, new light pours in. And I can hear the bells ringing again. 

LORE OF THE BELL:

Looking through the windows you've chosen yourself

makes the bells ring.