and this is how my mind works
i was thinking about the term dirty august
i first heard it from another wildland fire wife - august is often long and dry and hot and filled with fire and fire assignments - dirty on so many levels
so, today, i googled the term . . . maybe don't do that?
but one wonderful thing i found - there is a poetry collection by Edip Cansever titled Dirty August
originally written in Turkish and translated by Richard Tillinghast and Julia Clare Tillinghast-Akalin
the poem that was shared on the website from the collection is simply beautiful
Table
A man filled with the gladness of living
Put his keys on the table,
Put flowers in a copper bowl there.
He put his eggs and milk on the table.
He put there the light that came in through the window,
Sounds of a bicycle, sound of a spinning wheel.
The softness of bread and weather he put there.
On the table the man put
Things that happened in his mind.
What he wanted to do in life,
He put that there.
Those he loved, those he didn't love,
The man put them on the table too.
Three times three make nine:
The man put nine on the table.
He was next to the window next to the sky;
He reached out and placed on the table endlessness.
So many days he had wanted to drink a beer!
He put on the table the pouring of that beer.
He placed there his sleep and his wakefulness;
His hunger and his fullness he placed there.
Now that's what I call a table!
It didn't complain at all about the load.
It wobbled once or twice, then stood firm.
The man kept piling things on.
this resonates with me. so much. if i scroll back through this blog, if i scroll through my instagram, if i look back at my old flickr account . . . so much of my life is held on my table.
on my table
my bible and my journal
sun rays
darkness
candlelight
letters to be read and letters to be written
meals
bills and the checkbook
uno
settlers of catan
mexican train dominos
christmas cookies
homeschool work
college coursework
presents
balloons
birthday cakes
communion - the bread and the wine
flowers cut from my gardens
flowers gifted by friends
elbows
tests
tears stifled and tears that overflow
plenty
barely enough
cups of coffee and sometimes tea
glasses of cool water and sometimes soda
bowls of soup
plates of food fresh off the grill
stroopwaffles
crumbs
bowls of fruit
lists
registration forms
immunization records
maps
drawings
plans
papers scribed with hopes and dreams and how will any of this ever work out
paint
crayons
markers
love notes
legos - sets built following the directions and amazing original creations
hand-drawn cartoons
pictures
easy laughter and hard truth
sometimes questions, sometimes answers
books and more books - storybooks, picture books, books for research, and books full of good words
boxes and tape
piles to be packed
piles unpacked, waiting to be put away
scratches and water marks
table runners and table cloths - each with a story about a shop or one of my grandmas or my mom
surprises
rocks
collections of bugs and fossils and feathers
a bright light, a vise, tweezers, bobbins, whips, and flies
fabric, scissors, and pins
the sewing machine
homework
essays, math, science experiments, spanish worksheets, and report cards
laptops
telework
beads and string
invitations
boundaries
words poured out
fists pounded
palms flat
fingers entwined
forgiveness
hospitality
and grace
grace piled on grace
grace for the clearest days of may
and grace for the dirtiest days of august
grace offered
on my table