The Empty Clothesline

"Sometimes I have loved the peacefulness of an ordinary Sunday. It is like standing in a newly planted garden after a warm rain. You can feel the silent and invisible life. All it needs from you is that you take care not to trample on it." ~ Marilyn Robinson, author of Gilead

There are mornings that seem to require a softer step, a quieter entrance to the growing day, a time to let storms dissipate and fall into the nothingness from which they come. There's so much to be found in the "silent and invisible life," where anything is possible. Though the calendar tells us it's Monday, it's really just another "ordinary Sunday," deserving of all the gentleness we can bring to it, perhaps even a purer understanding of where each one of us might be on our own peculiar journey to remembering who we really are.


"Meeting the Light Completely"

Even the long-beloved
was once
an unrecognized stranger.

Just so,
the chipped lip
of a blue-glazed cup,
blown field
of a yellow curtain,
might also,
flooding and falling,
ruin your heart.

A table painted with roses.
An empty clothesline.

Each time,
the found world surprises—
that is its nature.

And then
what is said by all lovers:
"What fools we were, not to have seen."

~ Jane Hirshfield





Photo: my clothesline in summer