Here’s today’s #wonderbreak. [Want to learn more or join in by sharing your own poems about joyful things using the #wonderbreak hashtag?]
Two days ago, I got a mug in the mail, a gift from Read Aloud Revival. The cardboard box it came in had the cutest burlap ribbon around it with a cheery paper flower. It made me think about other little things that have made me smile: a lovely letter recently from a librarian about If You Were the Moon, and she had doodled all sorts of cute pictures and phrases all over the note and envelope; a poem given to me by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater several years ago at an NCTE or similar conference, and it was tucked inside a scroll, which was tied closed with (I think) a bow of colorful yarn made from the wool of her sheep. These little added touches that people do, over and above whatever the actual gift or item is, bring such a feeling of warmth and cheer to me. I am TERRIBLE about doing them myself–maybe that’s why I’m always astonished when people find the time to do something that has no function except to make someone smile.
Your poem reminds me of a favorite quote from Edward W. Bok, “Make you the world a bit better or more beautiful because you have lived in it.”
https://boktowergardens.org/
Yes! Love.
I love these special touches, too. I wish I were good at these little surprises of love. Like your poem, no job but beauty. We need more beauty.