This is what you have been waiting for

Krista Tippett has a fabulous interview with Marie Howe, who teaches writing at Sarah Lawrence College, and is the current State Poet of New York. The episode is called "The Poetry of Ordinary Time."

This is a poem she wrote of her brother, John, who died of AIDS at age 28.

"The Gate."
I had no idea that the gate I would step through
to finally enter this world
would be the space my brother's body made. He was
a little taller than me: a young man
but grown, himself by then,
done at twenty-eight, having folded every sheet,
rinsed every glass he would ever rinse under the cold
and running water.
This is what you have been waiting for, he used to say to me.
And I'd say, What?
And he'd say, This — holding up my cheese and mustard sandwich.
And I'd say, What?
And he'd say, This, sort of looking around.

"[H]ere's another line from "Nowhere." "This is how things happen, cup by cup, familiar gesture after gesture. What else can we know of safety or of fruitfulness?"

They go on to talk more about the sacredness of the every-day. The transcript is here.

May you revel in the kingdom of ordinary time, this day and every day.