Though some folks with a wicked
sense of humor decided to name
their stretch of Arizona desert
Nothing, and though today on someone’s
humorous calendar has been dubbed
Nothing Day, I can’t designate
even one of the increasingly fewer days
that lie before me as nothing. I hope
to have many quiet days ahead with
no particular thing pressing on me,
but let there never be a Nothing Day.
And if I imagine that there is, let me
take myself outside for a walk down
the block to witness so much Something
in the seemingly ordinary.
Like the fact that the sun is shining
on winter-bare trees busily preparing
foliage that will soon pop out,
days when I will again find myself
marveling at the cycle of things
that die as other things ready
themselves to be born, gloriously
“ta-da!”ing their way into the world,
this world, our world, right here,
regenerating without human
interference—miraculous, really—
not nothing at all.


Ah, yes. Better, I suppose, Nothing than Boring (Clackamas County, Oregon), Dull (Perth and Kinross Council Area, Scotland), Bland (a shire in New South Wales, Australia), or Peculiar (Cass County, Missouri)! Methinks these names be no Accident (Garrett County, Maryland)!
NB: The first three are sister cities and I have family connections with them or know a cousin or two that live nearby. They are lovely places and, like Nothing, are really something. So is your lovely meditation upon it all!
Thanks for all that nothing, Terry. I had no idea, but I’m quite taken with Bland… and yes, Accident!
“so much Something
in the seemingly ordinary.”
So much of it, everywhere ❤
Thanks so much, Moudi!