Have you noticed that I love this coffee table? Back when I used to write in my old blog, The Delicious Home, I talked about this beloved coffee table. Check it out here: If Furniture Could Talk.
One of my favorite go-to books on living with mindful gratitude is called Spiritual Literacy: Reading the Sacred in Everyday Life by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat. I love how it contains Anne Sexton's reflective poem, Welcome Morning.
::
There is joy
in all:
in the hair I brush each morning,
in the Cannon towel, newly washed,
that I rub my body with each morning,
in the chapel of eggs I cook
each morning,
in the outcry from the kettle
that heats my coffee
each morning,
in the spoon and the chair
that cry "hello there, Anne"
each morning,
in the godhead of the table
that I set my silver, plate, cup upon
each morning.
All this is God,
right here in my pea-green house
each morning
and I mean,
though often forget,
to give thanks,
to faint down by the kitchen table
in a prayer of rejoicing
as the holy birds at the kitchen window
peck into their marriage of seeds.
So while I think of it,
let me paint a thank-you on my palm
for this God, this laughter of the morning,
lest it go unspoken.
The Joy that isn't shared I've heard,
dies young.
::
In the common and familiar, we do find our sense of place in the world. We can be away from home--feeling out of place--but when we sense what we know to be true, there is comfort in that knowing and recognizing. We just have to slow down and spot it. There is Joy.
A few of my joys lately...
Sight: purple and blue hydrangeas on my kitchen table
Smell: chlorine from the swimming pool on hot afternoon
Sound: The Perfect Kiss by New Order playing at Chocolati Cafe on Greenwood Avenue, Seattle
Taste: my morning espresso; rich and potent, like a fresh waffle cone dipped in chocolate
Touch: cool sheets at the end of a full day
What are some of your joys?