The view

This full-moon view from my apartment windows is what it was all about. The packing and sorting, lifting and hauling, cleaning and bending; losing my internet service for two days (just got it restored five minutes ago); the broken glass, the chair that doesn't fit, the stripped screws, the expense. This is what it was all for. This glorious view of Portland and the sky above the city, the moon splashing blue light across my bed all night. 

Sue spent the first night with me here and helped me move furniture around, and then she set off for the coast to spend the holiday with her siblings while I unbox, rehang pictures, re-shelve books, search for what I've misplaced, and sit gazing out the windows at the wide expanse of world before me. Tonight, alone for the first time in the new space, I am a little teary with exhaustion, disorientation, and gratitude.

To what
shall I compare the world?
It is like the wake
vanishing behind a boat
that has rowed away at dawn.
--Sami Manzei, Japanese Buddhist priest, 8th Century.

One of my neighbors, sour-faced and chronically annoyed with everything and everyone, observed to another neighbor loudly enough for me to hear, "Says she needs a view. Needs a view, my ass."