Otherwise

Blanket Squares

 

A post on the Brain Pickings Facebook page started me thinking about Jane Kenyon earlier this week. Her poem “Otherwise” gets in my head from time to time and stays there. I find the truth of it both wonderful and awful.

 

Otherwise

I got out of bed
on two strong legs.
It might have been
otherwise. I ate
cereal, sweet
milk, ripe, flawless
peach. It might
have been otherwise.
I took the dog uphill
to the birch wood.
All morning I did
the work I love.

At noon I lay down
with my mate. It might
have been otherwise.
We ate dinner together
at a table with silver
candlesticks. It might
have been otherwise.
I slept in a bed
in a room with paintings
on the walls, and
planned another day
just like this day.
But one day, I know,
it will be otherwise.

—Jane Kenyon

 

On this Thanksgiving eve, my wish for all of us is that we have the capacity to recognize and embrace the wonderful things that are. It could so easily be otherwise.

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