Monday, November 10, 2008

this is how i love

a couple of weeks ago i received an e-mail from a soul*sister across the country. she wrote, "I heard this poem on my way home on NPR....It reminded me of your appreciation for the small things...."

yes, this is what my life's calling is: seeing, appreciating, celebrating & sharing the small, daily, ordinary, miraculous, alive things. this is how i love. this is how i pray & worship.

The Patience of Ordinary Things
by Pat Schneider

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 bottoms 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 repetition of stairs.
And what is more generous than a window?

from Another River: New and Selected Poems.

1 comment:

Susan Tuttle said...

I love this poem -- I know I have read it somewhere before. It is simply gorgeous and says it all for me.

Susan