words are beautiful

While reading today's email edition of Mindful News, I followed a link to Joanna Goddard's blog, A Cup of Jo. She wrote an article called, What's the Most Beautiful Thing You've Ever Read? 

I was immediately intrigued. I have a fascination with words. Obviously, one of my passions is writing. I'm a voracious reader and keep a running list of beautiful passages I find in books. I do the same with quotes. I enjoy poetry readings. The library and bookstores are two of my favorite places.

As of right now, Joanna's blog has 1157 comments in response to her question! I've only had time to go through a handful of the comments and I've found some real goodies. Of course, those have been copied and pasted into a Word document so I can refer back to them when I so desire.

I thought it'd be fun to ask you ~ my readers ~ what is the most beautiful thing you've ever read? Please share with all of us. It can be lines from a book, a particular quote, a poem, song lyrics, a Bible verse...whatever words have moved you.

{My current reads}

I'll start out by sharing a few of my favorite, beautiful words with you. I had a hard time picking out what to share. There's so much!

QUOTES

Why do people keep asking to see God's identity papers when darkness opening into morning is more than enough?

 (Mary Oliver)

We would be together and have out books and at night be warm in bed together with the windows open and the stars bright.

 (Ernest Hemmingway)

PASSAGE FROM A BOOK

The blueberries were ready now, soft, inky, desperate to stain. And there was the snow, outside my window, smothering the earth. I imagined that all things in life had their singular drives - to stain, to smother, to support, to survive, to nurture. The sink said, Splash me, and the oven said, Stuff me, and the refrigerator, the caretaker, hummed, I am here, I am here. I stood in the middle of my kitchen like the clever oiler of their machinery, but a piece of me wished to be elsewhere. A piece of me wanted to walk into the snow, to disappear slowly from view, to draw around myself in a watertight line. 

(Nora Seton, The Kitchen Congregation)

A POEM

LOVE AFTER LOVE
Derek Walcott

The time will come

when, with elation

you will greet yourself arriving

at your own door, in your own mirror

and each will smile at the other's welcome

and say, sit here. Eat.

You will love again the stranger who was your self.

Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart

to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored

for another, who knows you by heart.

Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,

peel your own image from the mirror.

Sit. Feast on your life.

OK, your turn!

for today

For Today

The Simple Woman's Daybook

Looking out my window ~
I see hazy morning light and snow on the ground. So does Monkey.
After getting 5" of snow yesterday, it's frigidly cold here again. It was -3F when I woke up this morning. We're due for more snow this afternoon into tonight.

I am thinking ~
About the day ahead of me. I have homemade chicken stock going in the Crockpot; I need to do my yoga practice, clean cat boxes, do laundry, and work on an ongoing project in the basement. This afternoon, I need to start dinner, which will be a vegetarian jambalya. 

I am thankful ~
That I don't need to run any errands today.

One of my favorite things ~
Fresh flowers in the house, even in winter. Especially in winter!

I am creating ~

{whether you are a knitter, mixed-media artist, enjoy scrap-booking, etc., share}
A cozy corner in the spare room. This is a naked IKEA chair. The slipcover was dirty and dusty from this chair being stored in the basement, so I washed it yesterday and now it's hanging to dry. The slipcover is the original that came with the chair - it's black - so next time I go to IKEA, I'm picking up a white slipcover.

I am wearing ~
Yoga pants, a long-sleeved cotton shirt with a tank top underneath, thick socks.

I am reading (read) /watching (watched) / listening to ~

{share favorite titles, give a book review or pass along a current movie, podcast, music video, or television series you are enjoying}
Just started The Story of Arthur Truluv by Elizabeth Berg last night. 

The only TV show I watch is This is Us. Did you see last night's episode after the Super Bowl?!

Music...I've been listening to "coffee table jazz" on Spotify, playing it through the Bose speaker in the living room. The music is very relaxing.

I am hoping ~
that the groundhog was wrong and that there won't be six more weeks of winter.

I am learning ~
that chopping vegetables can be very cathartic.

In my kitchen ~

{share your kitchen adventures, weekly menu, as well as recipes}
Chicken carcass and vegetable scraps for broth...

Paleo blueberry muffins (made with almond flour and pure maple syrup)...

Chopping vegetables for homemade soup yesterday...

Getting ready to make the veggie jambalya...

The jambalaya recipe is from this cookbook...

Post Script ~

{add a favorite link that you would like to pass along. It can be someone else's website, etsy shop, instagram feed, facebook link OR it can be your own}

I love this house! It's a cottage in Little Rock, Arkansas designed by Kathryn J. LeMaster. The colors, design and collections are so charming.

Shared Quote ~
{share a favorite quote}
"I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude." ~ Henry David Thoreau

A moment from my day ~

{share a picture with us of your daily-ness}
Monkey on top of the clean laundry I'm supposed to be folding.

If you're interested in participating in doing a post for The Simple Woman's Daybook, see the guidelines here.