May 4, 2012

First light, well, not even light yet, just a little gray around the edges, sort of like me.  The trees still in black silhouette and one mockingbird out going through his routine.  This one has the mourning dove and the cardinal and the hooting laugh sound of the big woodpecker among his songs.  Nobody is out yet, or at least I have not seen anyone nor any cars.  Earlier the 5:20 truck went down, I heard it as I was getting up.

Being Friday and the end of the work week I thought I would send one of my favorite poems, and, yes I know, I have such a lot of them.  But it's kind of like choosing between your children, they are all special in their own way and all dearly loved!

The Orange

At lunchtime I bought a huge orange --

the size of it made us all laugh.

I peeled it and shared it with Robert and Dave --

they got quarters and I had a half.

And that orange, it made me so happy,

as ordinary things often do

just lately.  The shopping.  A walk in the park.

This is peace and contentment.  It's new.

The rest of the day was quite easy.

I did all the jobs on my list

and enjoyed them and had some time over.

I love you.  I'm glad I exist.

Wendy Cope

A poem about a small kindness.  When you hear the news, sometimes it's easy to forget the world is often full of these small kindnesses.  At school on Wednesday, people sent or brought food for the teachers for Teacher Appreciation Day, I think.  They said to me, go have a muffin!  Such a small kindness, don't you think?  But all the care someone had taken to make and bring those things just made me smile, just like that orange.  I saw the kids bringing in plates and Tupperware and they were smiling too and talking about what their moms or them had made to bring.  A small thing in the overall scheme of things, but an effort to thank people who I know spend a lot of time outside the classroom working on things to make learning easier, to make the world a more understandable place.  And I was glad to be included.   Isn't it always a bonus when you get the tasks you had to get done finished and have some time over? 

Ah, the fresh blush of pink just now beginning to tint the gray, and the high school bus rounding the corner without slowing down this morning.  More birds are beginning to call to each other, those two crows must live near by or maybe they are different ones, I cannot tell their voices apart, they all sound harsh and loud!  The clouds are rosey, if I could see the actual sun I am sure it would be red, and just now black is being erased from the near trees, the thinnest leaves green first.  Cars are heading out, their people still half asleep, drinking coffee, moving off like elephants do, by memory alone sometimes, by habit, by rote.

It's Friday, look forward to the weekend and past at a week finished, all those tasks completed, all the small kindnesses of the days.  It's the very ordinary things that sometimes make us happy.  Find some ordinary thing today.