A Day Well Spent

So it was a perfect day, so warm for February, sunny and almost early Spring-like. I had great plans for this day off, but there was the apartment to clean, the pile of books and dvds to take back to the library and the tax materials to gather up and take to the accountant. I had made a date to sit a bit on my perfect bench on my perfectly temporary balcony looking up at the perfectly friendly trees.  But the apartment was dirtier than I had thought, the tax papers were more fussy than I had anticipated, and I stayed too long at the library, again.  Coming home, there was dinner to make and some goodies for my dads birthday to bake, so the sun pretty much came and went and my bench stayed empty and the trees, who had waited for me, were stood up.  I was feeling guilty for squandering the day. Eventually, just a few minutes before day darkened, I finally got to treat myself to a bit of one of my library pickings. 

I had picked up a book of Alice Walker poems (Absolute Trust in the Goodness of the Earth) because her words always make me feel  raw, alive and a little less apologetic. I read a few poems about lost loves and the attacks of 911 and then came to this, which I thought was pretty low key when it comes to Alice Walker's words, and yet, it was just what I needed at that moment. 

           

"Grace gives me a day too beautiful, I had thought, to stay indoors, and yet, washing my dishes, straightening my shelves, finally throwing out the wilted onions, shrunken garlic cloves. I discover, I am happy to be inside, looking out. This, I think is wealth. Just this choosing of how a beautiful day is spent. "                                             Alice Walker                            

The poem was a graceful pause at the end of busy day.  A day that closed with satisfaction. A clean apartment, taxes done, and recognition of the blessed freedom of having stayed at the library for as long as I wanted and picking out the book of my choosing.