City -- Part One

I live in a city now. I’d never lived in a city before, but I’m beginning to get used to it. But there are still times when I just stand on the balcony and watch it--the city, that is. Someday I’ll count all the balconies I can see from mine, but it’s a lot! Some of them are stark and barren. Dozens have laundry fluttering. Some are closed in with safety bars or glass enclosures. Others are homes for plants and plastic chairs suggestive of summer evening tea under the stars. What amazed me is to think that for every balcony, there is a life being lived, home being made, work being done, food eaten, sleep slept. Our neighborhood, unlike New York where I once stayed, goes to sleep at night. But it still amazed me to think that even when it is quiet and dark and sleepy, I stand there surrounded by thousands of lives barely more than a stone’s throw away.