kitchen trinity

["The day after" by Lisa Steinbrueck]

I'm really getting into swapping & loaning books via snail mail.* Perhaps a way to afford my insatiable literary appetite since I just found out I'll soon be having laparoscopic surgery for endometriosis? That ain't cheap. But I'm actually ready for the surgery. It'll help me feel better, and make my womb hospitable for babies. It's my first surgery ever, so I do have a little apprehension, but all in all, I feel peaceful. The Lord is healing me through a trinity of some of the best doctors in Houston.

Anyway, I loaned Real Love for Real Life: the Art and Work of Caring (scroll down) to my blog-friend, Lindsay, not too long ago. The book arrived in our mailbox today with a sweet handwritten note + an amazing poem by Kathleen Norris, which Lindsay also took the time to write by hand.

I read the poem from Little Girls in Church over and over again and thought to myself, I must share this on my blog. And I own this book, glory be! I can read it for Fifty Two Fifty Two.

So, here's that poem:

Kitchen Trinity
by Kathleen Norris

Three women
at a table
hold the world.

One gets up
to stir the stars,
one makes the fire,
another blows on it
to keep it going;
and still they have time for play,

three women
hunched over a cup,
hands open in invitation
as the table tilts
in Rublev's icon,

three angels
with the same face.

My mother is the tree trunk I climb,
my grandmother's hands
kneading bread
make the table shake.

Tell me the story
of three hungry angels
who appeared one day at Abraham's tent,
to make Sarah work
and laugh.


* - Send me an e-mail if you're interested in snail mail book swaps & loans (see my profile).