The Shutters

Doors and windows. There is a folder full of them in my photo-archive. They can be so symbolic, can’t they? Openings into another realm or a different reality…. We speak of ‘windows of opportunity’ and here at Findhorn we work a lot with the ‘Opening Doors Within’ guidance of Eileen Caddy. On the material level the door is the entrance and exit, the passage into a building. Sometimes the windows look like the eyes of the house.

Several summers ago during a journey through the south of France, I worked with the theme of windows and doors, their colours, potential and deeper meaning. They became the focus of that photo-travel. Les portes et les venêtres. Les yeux ouvertes ou fermés, qui me regardent, qui me parlent — et moi, j’ecoute. Et on se regarde, nous deux. *

In one quick movement, this window with its turquoise closed shutters in the bright afternoon sunshine called my attention. Was the Madame of the house having a well-deserved siesta? I imagine a late fulfilling lunch with friends, with Poisson aux Legumes, freshly baked baguette and a bottle of Sauvignon de l’Arjolle, a crisp white wine from their Languedoc region?

Was hers such a happy story? Or do we make our stories reflecting our own mood? Are they filled with our dreams and longings like shutters opening and closing to expose the film of our life?

The windows have their eyes closed for the world; looking inwards and I cannot read life in between the hinged wooden panels. But in the shade of the lush green tree my eyes keep moving upwards wanting the story to continue.

January 2014, © story and photo Adriana Bijman

*Doors and windows, eyes open or closed, which look at me, which speak to me — 

and I, I listen. And we look at each other.