This morning have you seen a sparkle of light through the shaken leaves of a cypress, after an unseen squirrel has hastened across the branch?
Yesterday, did you examine the exact shape of an oak leaf, its veins branching like blood vessels, like roots, like lightning, a thousand fractal shades of red and brown and yellow?
At any time, have you seen the whisker on a cat, the fuzz at the edge of a blanket?
Smelled coffee or incense or the creak of the fold in a beautiful piece of leatherwork? Hung a sun catcher or laid a rug to soften your feet after a bath? Savored a pot of soup made with love, crisp ginger crunching in your teeth?
Did you hear the voice of your beloved, or the sound of a cough from the other room? Did a spark of light refract off a a neoprene suction cup hanging in a cobwebbed window, long past when its purpose has been forgotten, shining inexplicably like a gemstone, shining into the webs and making them for a moment like lace, like the work of a thousand beautiful hands (they are the work of beautiful hands)?
Did you live today, or yesterday, or a week ago? Have you loved something or someone, even for a moment, for a passing instant?
Can you let it be enough, for just right now? Can you forgive yourself all the rest, and remember that we are not here to walk on our knees, to wear horsehair and flagellate?
So there are cobwebs in the corners and dust under the bed. That project you started six months ago is just bits of wood lying on the floor, collecting stains.
Stains? Call it patina.
Call it life.
If you're here for it, it's enough. You're enough.
This morning I'm grateful for all the small beauties and comforts, and most especially for the cup of coffee my beloved has placed beside the bed.
How about you?
Fen Druadìn
Fen Druadìn (they/them) is a storyteller, a visionary, and a book midwife.
Fen's mission is to change the world for the better, one paradigm-shifting book at a time.
Fen works with CEOs and consultants who care deeply about their impact on the world and want to enhance both their legacy and their personal effectiveness through the power of a professionally published work, in their own words.
Fen has applied the magic of more than two decades of professional storytelling, an impressive business background, and a deeply rooted, trained connection to earth-based medicine and spiritual practice to develop a system that helps clients do their most focused, powerful work, and produce a book they're proud to hold in their hands.
When they're not working with clients or writing their own books, Fen can usually be found wandering the woods alone, sitting around a campfire with friends, or swimming in the cold spring waters native to the Southern Appalachians.
To learn more about Fen's Book Midwife program, feel free to grab a spot on their calendar here.
More Essays
Regular insights on creativity and the creative process.