Prompt Blog 3

My backyard is still foreign and new to me. It was the last area I investigated after moving to New Castle. In fact, I never set foot there until these blog entries started. I would watch my housemates come around the house from the back yard, telling me they were putting up a tall wooden fence or pulling up weeds and bricks from the patio in order to make a garden. But the only times I ever saw the area was from my room, a small strip from the kitchen window, and when I would look out the half-wall windows of the sun room.

But the back yard is very much like moving into a new, cramped place. When I moved into the house that already had five other people living there, the dynamic changed. The atmosphere grew tense and uncertain and someone else's rhythms, habits, and schedules were added with the rest of the tenants' already coordinating lifestyles. It took months to feel comfortable with everyone there, but by that point they were having their own problems. We all kept to ourselves and stayed within our own confined quarters, rarely using the living room and kitchen as community areas. There was nowhere to go without first making sure no one else was there. We became tense or surprised when we would walk into a room and discover someone else already there, or go to use the bathroom and find it occupied while the other bathroom lacked toilet paper. We had to adjust and accept what was there (another person, a new lifestyle) and what wasn't there (comfort, trust, confidentiality).

When walking out to the backyard, it's like meeting a new tenant again. I psychologically explore, observe events and details, and slowly shift into the changing environment. I walk slowly, watch my back, and look for aspects that would welcome difference or deny them. And the back yard is still like my tiny room. I'm surrounded by walls with very few openings. People are coming and going constantly. The entrances aren't well protected so there is no sense of safety. But, like rooms and new tenants, it takes time until they become acceptable and normal. A room becomes one's own, tenants come and go, and a backyard can go through seasons and change with the house's internal atmosphere. It just takes time, and I haven't had enough time to discern whether the backyard will sync properly or I'll avoid it after these blogs are done.