One Art
by Elizabeth Bishop
The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.
Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.
I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.
I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.
--Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.
Let me give Nancy's theory a try. The mathematical structure of my day today:
1 Conference talk
2 prayers
1 breakfast served
2 lunches made
1 load of laundry put away
3 potty accidents on the carpet cleaned up
3 books read aloud
4 phone calls
1 conversation with a favorite friend
1 mopped floor
1 room dusted
1 bed made
2 music classes taught
3 conversations with music moms
27 composer bucks paid out
1 canner transferred to another ward
1 pot of daal cooked
1 mile biked
1 flat tire
1 mile walked
1 PTA meeting
1 inherited fat folder: "PTA Newletter Editor"
3 conversations with new friends
17 frozen blueberries
1 conversation with Rich
3 snuggle-cuddles with 3 boys in bed
3 prayers
"Focus on the moment. And most moments are delightful, aren't they?"
Nancy Messege-Downing
Nancy Messege-Downing
3 comments:
This mathematical list convinces me that we are still similar. It is identical to many that spot my journals.
Two peas in a pod. Watch the real estate in your pod.
The house next door to us (through the woods) with 2 acres, a merry-go-round, and a little creek is for sale. What more could you possibly want?
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