The Blind Old Man

The Blind Old Man

by Robert Bly

I don't know why so much sweetness hovers around us.
Nor why the wind blows the curtains in the afternoons,
Nor why the earth mutters so much about its children.

We'll never know why the snow falls through the night,
Nor how the heron stretches her long legs,
Nor why we feel so abandoned in the morning.

We have never understood how birds manage to fly,
Nor who the genius is who makes up dreams,
Nor how heaven and earth can appear in a poem.

We don't know why the rain falls so long.
The ditchdigger turns up one shovel after another.
The herons go on stitching the heavens together.

We've never heard about the day we were conceived
Nor the doctor who helped us to be born,
Nor that blind old man who decides when we will die.

It's hard to understand why the sun rises,
And why our children are mostly fond of us,
And why the wind blows the curtains in the afternoon.

"The Blind Old Man" by Robert Bly, from Talking Into the Ear of a Donkey. © W.W. Norton & Co., 2010.

from Writer's Almanac

Lovely Day

Today is the first day that I feel our new apartment is put-together enough that I can leave it alone.  It is far from complete—the bedroom floor is covered in things not-yet-put-away, empty shelves sit waiting for their trip to Goodwill—but I can let it sit for a day or two.

A few lovely things have happened lately, and I’m happy.  I found out this past week that I’ve been accepted to both education programs I applied to, and we had our engagement photo shoot last night.

I’m over the moon about the acceptances.  I was really worried, after the Teach for America debacle, that this whole credential thing wasn’t going to happen.  But now here I sit with a choice of where to go, an embarrassment of educational riches.  It feels like sitting atop a mound of my favorite books, or like I’ve been given a palatial yet cozy room to myself in the most wondrous, winding library with a view of a forest and mountains beyond and a sunset and the sea.  I can open the windows wide to the lovely, sunshiny breeze, and I can close them up against the rain and light a fire.  Yay yay yay!

The engagement session was a lot of fun, and our photographer, Patrick Pike, is fantastic.  We wandered around the neighborhood, and Phil whispered Anchorman quotes and Gilligan’s Island lyrics into my ear as we snuggled under streetlights and giggled in corners.  (Blech!)  A few pictures are up already, and we are pretty damn cute!

So it's invitation design day today, rental booking day, wedding organization day.  Woot! Let's go!