Golden windows

After a good night’s sleep, which was very welcome, I’ve felt so much better today. When I arrived downstairs to make a pot of tea, this was the sight that greeted me through our family room window. It’s a window in our neighbours’ house looking for all the world as though it’s made of molten gold. 

I immediately thought of a fairy story that I read many years ago about a little girl who looks out of her window and sees a house far, far away in the distance with windows of gold. She is entranced by them, so one day she decides to try and find the house with the golden windows. She walks for miles until she comes across it, but she is so disappointed to find that the windows are made of ordinary glass, just like hers.

I didn’t remember any more of the story, but in trying to find out where I’d read it (and drawing a blank when looking through my bookshelves) I asked Google for help. I was fascinated to discover that the story I’d read was based on one by Laura E. Richards, daughter of Julia Ward Howe (author of The Battle Hymn of the Republic). 

The Tale of the Golden Windows is one many children’s stories that she wrote. In her version of the story it is actually a young boy who sees the golden windows, and on reaching the house and discovering that the windows are made of glass, he is told by a little girl in the house that he has come the wrong way, and she takes him outside at sunset and shows him a house in the distance with beautiful golden windows – which, of course, is his own home!

The moral of the tale is to see the blessings around you, even when the grass seems greener on the other side.