Joy (IV)

“Joy comes to those who in a sense forget themselves and become totally aware of the other.” ~Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

Blooms of Selflessness

Water drips from bags, buckets, and bins
we pull from the basement

and we throw the moldy trash
over the top, into the bin

and hear it crash
through the silence

we keep quiet about the massive
job ahead, assigning missions

to the kids, keeping even ourselves
quiet and distracted

each working for the other’s
sanity knowing it comes

with the time and the space
we make, we create alcoves

of patience and dance around
the pools, build bridges of possibility

and hope, and watching the water recede
we forget ourselves in the giving

and find ourselves in the receiving,
blooms of selflessness

floating in
and out with the tide.