Blood donors top my gratitude list today. On this day over three decades ago, a doctor saved me with her own blood as well as that of so many others…🌟
Honeysuckle along the walking path…🌟
A dear friend texted me this gift for National Poetry Month: it’s the number for Oregon’s Poetry Hotline—call and listen to a new poem each day through the month of April: 503-928-7008 🌟
Children and swing sets 🌟
Busy cardinals in to-fro flight 🌟
Viewing the solar eclipse from my own front yard-memorable and amazing sight 🌟
Coffee in the just right cup 🌟
Bonus:
A short poem from Naomi Nye to send us into the new week: 👠
Another birthday in the books last week, and gratitude for family and friends who honored the day with special moments. 🎂
Granddaughters who are currently enamored with the magician’s code and how one keeps pulling all manner of objects from my ear. The best part is her reaction to my reaction…is there anything more joyful than a child’s laugh? Listen for that in your comings and goings this week. Notice it as the gift it is. 🪄 🎩
Wildflower bouquets. Receiving one and knowing these moments are simply a window of time. Children grow and become busy with so much; when someone offers a wildflower bouquet, I hope you recognize the gift of that. Added bonus: a child who agrees to a picture. That sometimes is fleeting, too. 🌸
Beautiful offering
Funny stories told and shared… 🤭
Daily routines and rituals…and freedom to choose how our days will run in the background of life… 📝
Spring’s gifts of puddles and purple irises this week. 🌧️ 💜
Knowing how to prepare a meal and realizing that, too, is worthy of praise. 🍽️
I hope in this month of April (oh, it’s National Poetry Month…I’ll add one as a bonus 😊 below), you’ll honor the gifts of your life. I hope, like me, you’ll never exhaust the list. The more you notice, the more arrive. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
A Gift
By Czeslaw Milosz
A day so happy. Fog lifted early, I worked in the garden. Hummingbirds were stopping over honeysuckle flowers. There was no thing on earth I wanted to possess. I knew no one worth my envying him. Whatever evil I had suffered, I forgot. To think that once I was the same man did not embarrass me. In my body I felt no pain. When straightening up, I saw the blue sea and sails.
—-
And, as all things are connected it seems, this poem reminds me of a young man who read the poetry of Milosz to me in Prague…and how that moment’s memory has always stayed with me.
This year, I hope to continue posting seven small (and big) things from recent days that I’m grateful for, but in addition to that, I’m planning to add a line or quote or verse from some current read.
This week’s choice has been in my stacks for years and includes many rich poems, but today I choose “Return”…maybe because a new year is similar to a re-entry after a vacation. Maybe we have been celebrating. Maybe now we have to come down. Maybe the poem has nothing to do with that. I’ll post it and maybe you’ll give it a read:
Return by Naomi Shihab Nye
Build my home here
On the spot of old time.
I’m sure I have failed you
One thousand ways,
You ancient clock,
You stockpot of moments.
Look how the first thing I do
Upon entering the house
Is remove my watch
It’s in your honor.
Fuel by Naomi Nye
So, poems. Other goodnesses lately:
Chex mix aka “trash” in these parts —delectable, savory, spicy treat.
Homemade pound cake —all the holiday food remnants beckoning for a few more tastes
Jon Batiste —musical genius
Camelias, winterberries, holly—all the winter bloomers
Forecasts for snow—still brings a smile
and those long airport hugs and kisses that have to last awhile—-grateful for daughter time this season.
Be kind to yourself this year, wherever you find yourself on 2024’s map.
I adopted a new artist word for the year: capacity. For me, it means paying attention to all I need and want, and all I hope to (and have to) let go. 🙌🏼🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟✨
I hope if you read poetry, you’ll continue. If you don’t, I encourage you to start with something familiar like a favorite nursery rhyme from your childhood or song lyrics—and keep offering yourself opportunities to read. You’ll find your preferred writers that way. You might even become your own preferred writer. ☺️
Here are seven titles and/or poets I enjoy:
“Winken, Blinken, and Nod” (poem by Eugene Field)
“The Layers” by Stanley Kunitz
“A Box of Pastels” by Ted Kooser
“Gate A-4” by Naomi Shihab Nye
“Do You Have Advice for Those of us Just Starting Out?”by Alberto Rios
“Somewhere in the World” by Linda Pastan
“I Meet My Grandmother in Italy” by Katrina Vandenberg
So many more names I could add…but I’ll start with these seven today.
I celebrated a birthday since our last meeting here. I’ll add that as a bonus entry. It’s a gift to witness and celebrate life. AND it is a gift to know people in my world accompany me along the way in so many tiny and medium and magnificent ways.
A blog reaching out to victims of abuse and others in need, providing insight about abuse, hope for the future, and guidance to see THE LIGHT that lead Secret Angel out of the darkness of her own abusive situation and helped her to not only survive but to overcome.
agnestirrito 