At times in our busy lives, a moment of pause to reflect on simplicity gives much needed perspective. The following poem by Pat Schneider does just that.

The Patience of Ordinary Things

It is a kind of love, is it not?

How the cup holds the tea,

How the chair stand sturdy and foursquare,

How the floor receives the bottoms of shoes

Or toes. How soles of feet know

Where they're supposed to be.

I've been thinking about the patience

Of ordinary things, how clothes

Wait respectfully in closets

And soap dries quietly in the dish,

And towels drink the wet

From the skin of the back.

And the lovely repetition of stairs.

And what is more generous than a window?