Slice of Life Tuesday (on Wednesday): Poetry

I fell asleep at 7pm last night, a little girl in the crook of my arm and Madeline laying on my chest. We slept like that until Daddy came to bed and gently took her ever-lengthening body into bed while I just rolled over and turned off the lights. There wasn’t anything that especially wore us out, sometimes it’s just nice to fall asleep early after a plain old normal day. Mia had preschool. Nick and I checked out a flea market and found some great books. Baked some birthday treats for lovelies at work. Black bean nachos for lunch. Naps in the afternoon and a whole lot of laundry. Chicken noodle soup and turkey sandwiches for dinner. Reading lots of new books before bed, then falling asleep cuddling. Normal days are the best kind of days.

Mindful

by Mary Oliver

Every day
I see or hear
something
that more or less

kills me
with delight,
that leaves me
like a needle

in the haystack
of light.
It was what I was born for –
to look, to listen,

to lose myself
inside this soft world –
to instruct myself
over and over

in joy,
and acclamation.
Nor am I talking
about the exceptional,

the fearful, the dreadful,
the very extravagant –
but of the ordinary,
the common, the very drab,

the daily presentations.
Oh, good scholar,
I say to myself,
how can you help

but grow wise
with such teachings
as these –
the untrimmable light

of the world,
the ocean’s shine,
the prayers that are made
out of grass?

-from Why I Wake Early, by Mary Oliver