The Darling Buds of May

Today was the first day of my new job in Connecticut. I suppose there was a great deal to focus on, but what struck me most as I strode into the now vacated office that would now be mine was this: windows. Four of them. A virtual panoramic view of field and tree and greenery and the old cemetery that banked one side of the office. It was something and I stopped and took it in.

This may not sound like much to you, but coming from Manhattan where I have a tiny interior office in a funky old dot com space, this was a high point. Yes, the Manhattan neighborhood is hip and cool and offers dangerously intriguing shopping opportunities, but I often suffered from the lack of seeing the outside world in my closed office space. I like the feeling of diffused sunlight streaming in from the outside. I like to see the light change as errant clouds work their way over the sun. I am a creature of the whims of the weather and nature and being isolated from it for long stretches of the day sucks life away. For me, anyway.

My Connecticut predecessor must have known this about me, perhaps I revealed this tendency in a casual conversation at one point while admiring the view from his office for he sent a final summary e-mail to me this weekend. He prefaced it with the following enticement of my new space: You will enjoy it, he said, when the trees surrounding the periphery of your office window space burst into their spring blooms and the luxury and beauty of the flora will help you through the more challenging days. In the sole quiet moment today--all of three minutes--I did sit down and gazed around the expanse of scenery outside my windows and marveled at the forming buds on the trees that reached to the windows. In a few more weeks, it will indeed be dazzling, a showstopper of colors.

I'll still be in a Manhattan a few days a week so the shopping and and the other desirable comforts of city working will still be at my fingertips. And I'm not about to give up city living anytime soon. But for the days I am at my new post, I'll have the seductive enticement of the magnolia tree, the showy bloom of the azalea bushes, the brazen red of the Japanese maples and the leggy opulence of summer inpatients.

It's the best of both worlds.