Dirty Windows
Years ago I lived in an apartment
building in a large city. The building next door was only a few feet away
from mine and I could look across the alley into the apartment on the same
floor as mine. There was a woman who lived there, whom I had never met,
yet I could see her as she sat by her window each afternoon, sewing or
reading.
After several months had gone
by, I began to notice that her windows were dirty. Everything was in distinct
through her smudged windows. I would say to myself, "I wonder why that
woman don't wash her windows?", They look dreadful!
One bright morning I decided
to do my spring house cleaning and thoroughly cleaned my apartment and
I washed my windows on the inside. Late in the afternoon when I was finished,
I sat down by the window with a cup of coffee for a rest. What a surprise!
Across the way, the woman sitting by her window was clearly visible, her
windows were clean!
Then it dawned on me, I have
been criticizing her dirty windows, but all the time I was observing them
through my own dirty window, that was quite an object lesson for me. How
often had I looked at and criticized others through the veil of my own
ignorance, through the mist of my own shortcomings?
Since then, when I have been
tempted to pass judgment on someone, I ask myself first, am I looking at
him or her through my own dirty window, then I try to polish the windows
of my own world so that I may see the world about me with more clarity.
And do you know? It doesn't
look half bad.
Author: Ruth E.K.
|
