I’ll be honest, I’m starting to think the prettiest views are from my apartment. Vaccinations may be increasing and the world may slowly be opening up again, but I still feel tentative to get back out there in the world. At the same time, I feel trapped when I’m inside all the time. But then I notice the way the light shines into my windows and I open all the blinds and I feel so much lighter. I’ll look out into the courtyard and tend to my plants and feel grateful for this little sun-lit and green corner of the universe despite the hardships of the past year. I’m grateful for the reminder to always look for the small, beautiful things in the views that I see everyday. 

So I suppose I’ll end this by challenging you to look around. What do you see?  

The crisscrossing of at least three separate palm trees. Unfortunately or maybe fortunately, I only noticed it because I stepped out onto the balcony to shake loose sand from my shoes. But the different shades of green plus the different shapes of the leaves caught my eye and made me stop for a second.  

The view outside the living room. Although outside the window might just be more apartment buildings, from this particular perspective, all I really see is even more palm trees and the interesting natural lighting that shines in at different times of the day. 

My plant collection, aka a work-in-progress balcony garden. Most of the times, these plants are the only thing that get me outside to breathe fresh air and crouching down to water them gives a different vantage point of my space. 

And finally, my personal favorite because this is the exact view I see from my bed. We’ve finally been opening up the blinds to allow more natural light in. In the background, there’s a beautiful pink-flowered tree. I’ll look out the window in between studying and find the whole picture to be quite relaxing.