The Unnoticed Neighbor

I spent three years living in a flat where the balcony overlooked a busy intersection. Every morning, a pair of crows would perch on the rusted railing, watching the commuters scramble toward the train station. I used to shoo them away, annoyed by their persistent, gravelly calls that cut through my early coffee. Then, one Tuesday, I stopped to actually look. I noticed the iridescent sheen on their feathers—a deep, oily violet that caught the sun—and the way they tilted their heads with a sharp, almost human curiosity. They weren’t just background noise to my morning; they were the true residents of the street, observing our frantic pace with a calm, ancient detachment. We spend so much of our lives ignoring the things that are closest to us, assuming that because they are common, they are unremarkable. But there is a quiet dignity in the familiar, if only we take the time to hold our gaze.

Masudur Rahman has captured this sense of quiet observation in his work titled The House Crow. It reminds me that even the most everyday creatures possess a character worth noticing. Have you looked closely at the life happening right outside your window today?