Windows have multi-dimensional meanings. Their framework and panes separate two distinctive worlds. Not just an obvious inside and outside, but an incredible array of the spaces that are either in relationship or in tension with one another. Very much like the idiosyncrasy between the dream and the awakened state. Windows, from the simple panes in a shed to the grand stained glass of a cathedral, imply an interactive relationship between us and the infinite unknown.
In The Virtual Window: From Alberti to Microsoft, Anne Friedberg examines the window as metaphor, as architectural component, and as an aperture to the dematerialized reality we see on the screen. Anne Friedberg was Professor of Critical Studies in the School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California, and also the author of Window Shopping: Cinema and the Postmodern.
The window metaphor has also provided a framework for the human desire to transcend its linear journey to something spiraling in the great beyond. Windows represent new possibilities as in the phrase “the window of opportunity.†Perhaps this is why the Microsoft operating systems was named “Windows.†But windows are also paradigms of the eyes, which are said to be “windows to the soul†because looking into someone’s eyes helps you understand the person.
The windows in these images are heavily scratched so that you cannot actually see into or through them. Use your imagination to enter the space behind them as if entering the holy of holies in the places most sacred to you. Spend time there, imagine what you see out of the windows from that sanctuary and allow that vision to carry you into a peaceful journey.
Divine Eye,
You see the heart and the pain
  of your creatures,
the tears of the water
  and the cries of the wind,
the movement of the earth
  and the flow of the fire.
In that vision enable us to be
  attuned to your ways
  and the lives of others:
that, entering the window
  of their soul, heart, mind
we summon song and dance of hope
to offer healing and wholeness as
 you have given your balm freely to us.
For You are the virtual window
through whom we dare to dream.
Â
Blessed be!
Prayer and images © Stacy Boorn, 2014