Heaped-Up Heart

I'm currently reading two books:

1. she walks in beauty: A Woman's Journey Through Poems by Caroline Kennedy

and

2. I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After Twenty Years Away by Bill Bryson

The first was a birthday gift from my mother, well knowing my love of poetry. Kennedy's collection of poems covers all of life's bases from love and sex to marriage, work, friendship, death, growing up and the more tangible of things.

The second was a birthday gift from my boyfriend, well knowing my love of travel and Bill Bryson. And he, being British himself, thought it might help me to better understand him.

Daily I flip through these pages, and today I share with you an excerpt from each.

First, a poem by Roy Croft entitled Love

I love you,
Not only for what you are,
But for what I am
When I am with you.

I love you,
Not only for what
You have made of yourself,
But for what
You are making of me.

I love you
For the part of me
That you bring out;
I love you
For putting your hand
Into my heaped-up heart
And passing over
All the foolish, weak things
That you can't help
Dimly seeing there,
And for drawing out
Into the light
All the beautiful belongings
That no one else had looked
Quite far enough to find.

I love you because you
Are helping me to make
Of the lumber of my life
Not a tavern
But a temple;
Out of the works
Of my every day
Not a reproach
But a song.

I love you
Because you have done
More than any creed
Could have done
To make me good,
And more than any fate
Could have done
To make me happy.

You have done it
Without a touch,
Without a word,
Without a sign.
You have done it
By being yourself.
Perhaps that is what
Being a friend means,
After all.

And second, a rather fitting quote from Bryson's work has made every frustration and challenge and struggle of young adulthood seem trivial. Well, at least for today.

"Take a moment from time to time to remember that you are alive. I know this sounds a trifle obvious, but it is amazing how little time we take to remark upon this singular and gratifying fact. By the most astounding stroke of luck an infinitesimal portion of all the matter in the universe came together to create you and for the tiniest moment in the great span of eternity you have the incomparable privilege to exist."

And with that I wish you all a happy Friday and a lovely weekend.
Until next time, let us not forget that the perfect collection of words at the most ideal moments has the remarkable power to completely change everything.