2024 April Poem a Day Challenge Day 13 Prompt: Living
Yesterday was a high of 88°. Today clouds gathered, bringing wind and rain. The wind picked up as I drove across town for a used book sale I never found. After walking an unfamiliar campus I finally asked for directions. They skipped the book sale this year. Rain started to fall as I picked up succulents from a seller I found on Facebook marketplace. Heavy drops pelted the windshield as I headed home.
Today I pulled a hundred or so books off shelves in my daughter's room. While cleaning, I texted a friend and her daughter, talking books and travels and how the best stories are connected. I baked cookies from a box of frozen dough I bought from a girl selling chocolate chip pecan cookies for school. In my concern to bake them long enough, I overcooked half of them.
Today I reheated shepherd's pie, then tuned in to a favorite author, watching her live conversation from the screen of my phone, from the comfort of my home, as she talked about her newest book, which my sister sent me two days ago. The author spoke from the heart about love and the many forms it takes, about marrying late in life.
Today is her fifth anniversary, three days after her 70th birthday. She related her faith journey, a story I recall from the first book by her I read—her finding a home in the songs of a church long ago—the strangest place for someone like her to find a home. And one day walking to her tiny houseboat with the feeling that Jesus was following her home like a lost kitten wanting milk, waiting to be invited inside, so she simply hung the door open and said, come in.
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