not a pretty picture. not a good. not a bad. picture. but an argument.

Monday, July 23, 2012

it is inside the tender every day moment that the magnitude of life resides

we are made, not by grand sweeps of significance
but rather by small and ordinary gestures




Highlights and Interstices by Jack Gilbert 


We think of lifetimes as mostly the exceptional
and sorrows.  Marriage we remember as the children,
vacations, and emergencies.  The uncommon parts.
But the best is often when nothing is happening.
The way a mother picks up the child almost without
noticing and carries her across Waller Street
while talking with the other women.  What if she
could keep all of that?  Our lives happen between
the memorable.   I have lost two thousand habitual 
breakfasts with Michiko.  What I miss most about
her is that commonplace I can no longer remember.