Reply
to the Question:
"How
can You Become a Poet?"
take the leaf of a tree
trace its exact shape
the outside edges
and inner lines
memorize the way it is fastened to the twig
(and how the twig arches from the branch)
how it springs forth in April
how it is panoplied in July
by late August
crumple it in your hand
so that you smell its end-of-summer sadness
chew its woody stem
listen to its autumn rattle
watch it as it atomizes in the November air
then in winter
when there is no leaf left
invent one.
-Eve Merriam
Anna is TWELVE!!
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
– Ephesians 4:2-3 (NIV)
The apostle Paul wants to make sure that followers of Christ are more interested in building each other up than tearing each other apart. It is easy to be critical, but when we bear with others we enter into their story and the little things that cause them to act the way that they do.
– David Whitehead
"There
are few things more subversive in this world than someone who sees grace in
every corner, who chuckles easy and loves easy and has both whimsy and mirth
mixed in with even their honest assessments of the way things truly are. These
glad-hearted people have discovered that thankfulness is not merely a
discipline but the only sane way to live in a world offering so much gritty
beauty, so much possibility for love, so many joys.
These
unlikely provocateurs have not caved to rose-tinted glasses or withdrawn from
bitter reality. They simply know that sorrow does not finally own the day. They
do not ignore the pain. Quite the opposite, their heart has grown so large that
the life they know possesses the courage to see all that is wrong and yet has
strength enough to gather the afflictions into itself, allowing love to tend to
the wounds. They know that joy, not misery, holds the ace. And they are so
very, very thankful."
- Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts
