the red wheelbarrow

This morning, I was running with Elizabeth, and we were talking about the shocking turn of events last night. 

As we were talking, I was reminded of this poem by William Carlos Williams:

"so much depends 

upon 

a red wheel 

barrow 

glazed with rain 

water 

beside the white 

chickens" 

I am thankful to my brilliant sophomore English teacher Margaret Renkl who taught me this poem. (From what I remember, Williams was a doctor, and he wrote the poem one morning after he had treated a child who was close to dying. The red wheelbarrow belonged to the child.) 

For some reason, this simple poem comforted me this morning as we tried to process and share our thoughts on our run early this morning in the dark, and as I came home, I spotted our red wheelbarrow in our back yard so graciously given to us by our neighbor Christine when she found out that our other one had been stolen.

It gives me pause to give thanks for the many gifts around me today even though a lot seems so heavy today for so many. Holding our world up to the Light today...