My poor sadly neglected blog. Ever since we moved the across country to DC I have found little time to write. I'm still looking for a free second to go buy conditioner and a toothbrush. Please, oh please don't ask me what I've been using in the interim. I now have an even smaller apartment even more full of fur, fuss, and fiber....the ever growing mountain of yarn.
Inspiration will still find you though, even when you are hiding from the world and scrambling to keep life juggling. Like the proverbial seedling sprouting from the pavement, life reminds us of it's little truths in the most unexpected moments of our lives. For example.....
I was absolutely killing a Chocolate xoxox candy bar, Sea Salt & Almond in dark delicious over priced chocolate, when I absentmindedly began to read the wrapper. I am a "package reader". I can tell you the calories, ingredients, and random marketing bits from every packaged item of food that I frequent....Even some of the unpronounceable ingredients. This candy bar had a love poem printed on the inside. I'd read some of this brand's poems before, and they mostly sucked, reminding me of prepubescent verses written to high school heartthrobs. This one however really stuck with me. It resonated with truths that I had come across as a new mom but hadn't been able to adequately phrase. It was so...so....true. I felt a little light go on inside. I felt complete agreement and kinship with the author, and I found myself nodding my head as I read it over and over. I realized all over again why poetry can be so powerful, how with a few descriptive words it summarized whole hours of thought into a beautiful and simple verse. It was the written equivalent of a little extra effort.
I wish we still lived in a time when people spent the time to properly phrase and nicely describe the mundane. Instead, it gets muted down into tiny tweets, or streaming Facebook status updates. Don't get me wrong. I love me some social media, and the american vernacular is my native tongue. No one speaks slang as fluently as I do. But think, when was the last time someone wrote you a poem? When was the last time someone did more than just sign their name to a card? Or worse...consider a FB Happy Birthday post enough? Actually when was the last time you had a real birthday?
I decided that I wanted to take a moment to write my son and husband something special. Something that took enough effort to really show them how much I care. Something that wasn't texted or instant messaged. Maybe not a poem, it's been awhile since I've written a good one, but something beautiful and thoughtfully penned. I tend to overdo things like this though, I read a wrapper and want to write my own poetry. Life however is still happening all around me. I am still in the middle of my fourth move in about 2 months so I have to keep things short and in perspective, but I think that this weekend I will find some time because my family deserves that little extra effort.
I've posted the poem below for everyone who has loved someone and watched them sleep....in a non creepy way of course. :) Maybe you'll be likewise inspired.
from Don Juan by Lord Byron
An infant when it gazes on the light,
A child the moment when it drains a breast,
A devotee when soars the Host in sight,
An Arab with a stranger for a guest,
A sailor when the prize has struck in fight,
A miser filling his most hoarded chest,
Feel rapture; but not such true joy are reaping
As they who watch o'er what they love while sleeping.
