Give Me Words

I am so thankful today for the sweet Summer Poem Swap gift of homemade art, joyful words, and creativity that arrived on my doorstep from Margaret Simon. It has been a week! One that needed  some happy, settling thoughts! 

I'm in the process of assuming a role in my in-laws' finances. That, in an of itself, is a scary thought since I have a hubby who does the personal stuff and a bookkeeper daughter does the business stuff. But dad is 92 and blind, and mom is 90 and forgetting things, important things, like paying bills.

I began the afternoon by calling the retirement office on my cell phone. There was a twenty minute wait, so while I was on hold, I called the insurance company on my home phone. They needed permission from dad to talk to me over the phone, so I walked next door with both phones, forgetting that my home phone could only go so far before the signal cut off--which it did while dad was talking to them. I called them back on dad's phone and got that straightened out. Cell phone is still on hold, so I called the cable/phone provider on the home phone. While she had me on hold, the retirement office finally answered and we resolved that very quickly after my forty-five minutes of standing in an invisible line. The cable lady came back and we resolved another one.

Then I headed to the insurance office. I walked into the State Farm building but they had no record of mom and dad in the computer and told me I was probably at the wrong office. Seems there's another State Farm office less than a mile down the road, so I turned around and went back to the other one, who also had no record of them. I looked down at my notes and realized I was supposed to be at the Allstate office, which by the way was two doors down from my first stop. Finally reached the right place, talked to the right person, and checked another one off my list.

Good grief!

I prefer words over numbers. Words, give me words!

And that's just what Margaret did. Hooray for the Summer Poem Swap!

The quote at the top is from Emily Dickinson: To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.

Margaret was my swap partner and I sent my poem to her last week. She posted it at Reflections on the Teche. Then, feeling very serendipitous, she took four words from my poem and used them in her poem to me. What fun this was to receive--a handmade card, a hand-lettered poem, and a tiny little book of quotes, called Living a Joyful Life.

Serendipity

Sprinkle
Easy smiles
Roads are long
Every midnight
     becomes a
New morning
Dripping grace
Invitations arrive
Peace bubbles
In water's
    moonstone
Time hears
Your gratitude

© Margaret Simon, 2016.

Many thanks to Tabatha Yeatts, who masterminds these poetry swaps and also hosts today's Poetry Friday Roundup at The Opposite of Indifference.