Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Look For It

Today was not a good day. There was too much dissonance and not enough calm. I retired to my room as soon as the children were put down to sleep, utterly defeated and ready to read myself into a restless sleep. I picked up a magazine from my bedside table and opened it to find this poem staring up at me. What a beautiful and sobering reminder that no matter how hopeless it seems, there is peace to be found in the simple, everyday acts of living. Tomorrow, I promise to look for it...

I Have Found Such Joy

I have found such joy in simple things;
A plain, clean room, a nut-brown loaf of bread,
A cup of milk, a kettle as it sings,
The shelter of a roof above my head.
And in a leaf-laced square along the floor,
Where yellow sunlight glimmers through the door.
I have found such joy in things that fill
My quiet days: a curtain's blowing grace,
A potted plant upon my windowsill,
A rose, fresh-cut and placed within a vase;
A table cleared, a lamp beside a chair,
And books I long have loved beside me there.
Oh, I have found such joys I wish I might
Tell every woman who goes seeking far
For some elusive, feverish delight,
That very close to home the great joys are:
The elemental things--old as the race,
Yet never, through the ages, commonplace
.

--Grace Noll Crowell

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1 comment:

  1. Oh boy... I've had a couple of those days with my kids lately and that poem was just a lovely reminder. Sometimes my brain is so scattered and frazzled with my 3 little ones that I forget to hit the "reset" button and start all over with a fresh attitude and more love. Thank you for sharing that. So lovely.

    Melanie.

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