April 3rd, 2019

Ordinary Things

The other day I bought a book from Amazon.

Well, I bought two books from Amazon, both entitled "Poetry of Presence" An Anthology of Mindfulness Poems.

I bought two, knowing that one I would want to share, and give away.

One copy sits close by the breakfast table and I treasure those early morning hours when all is quiet 

and I can read, and play the ukulele, 

and just kind of ponder on life, and what it's like to be 94!!

Oh, this life,

the now,

this morning,

which I 

can turn

into forever

by simply 

loving 

what is here

is gone,

by noon.

Sad, but true....

However, this morning, as I had my coffee from an ordinary cup,.

sitting there at an ordinary table,

I came across this ordinary poem...

The Patience of Ordinary Things

It is a kind of love, is it not?

How the cup holds the tea,

How the chair stands sturdy and foursquare,

How the floor receives the bottom of shoes

or toes.  How soles of feet know

Where they' re supposed to be.

I've been thinking about the patience

Of ordinary things.  How clothes

Wait respectfully in closets

And soap dries quietly in the dish,

And towels drink the wet

from the skin of the back.

And the lovely repitition of stairs.

And what is more generous than a window?

Pat Schneider

And I thought about how all the flowers that find their home on the vanity

 against the wall opposite the front door, 

double the pleasure they radiate from their reflections in the glass

and the way the piano is reflected in the window at night...

And how I can see exactly what the little dog, Bruce, is doing

if I sit on the right side of the table and watch

in the glass

his perambulations on the sofa

and his earnest activity in getting the pillows

in just the right place for a morning nap!!

Life is good, and entertaining.