“but it’s just a shoebox,” he said
“there’s nothing special about it.”
but I see perfection in
that which is well constructed
to serve one purpose
and when it has
finished being used in its intended way
rather than being considered redundant
and thrown away as defunct
it is only briefly unemployed
before being re-filled and useful again
I see perfection in many things
in the neat pleats of a hornbeam leaf
as it opens to the warmth of spring
in a baby’s smile, a butterfly’s shining wings
a chestnut tree, the first rain after a drought
sometimes I feel perfection in a simple thought
I hear it when Leonard Cohen sings
but I revel in the beauty of recycling
©Jane Paterson Basil
Posted in response to Calen’s Sandbox Challenge Week 8
Making it write 
What an interesting and wonderful take on that prompt. You’re so right about recycling!
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I love recycling, and I have a passion for boxes of any kind. I used to be emabarrassed about it because people made fun of me, but then I discovered lots of other women felt the same way.
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Me, too! But not just boxes. Containers of any sort. When I was in DC last week I went to the National Museum of Art and found this beautiful little stained glass box with a dragonfly on it. I knew immediately what was supposed to be in it — prompts!
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A dragonfly -sounds as if it had your name on it.
Today in the back of the Oxfam shop (where I volunteer) I pulled out a beautiful big old wooden cigar box with etching on it. It had the original labels on the back (faded and a bit tatty) and the inside. I wanted to buy it, but I’d already bought a wooden box with ornate patterning on it. I couldn’t justify buying a nother – and anyway, I had a feeling it was worth more than I would want to pay.
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I absolutely agree. I love beautiful utilitarian objects and packaging and I, too, use them again. http://judydykstrabrown.com/2015/10/01/cast-in-potato-salad-carved-in-stone/
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Ooh. Packaging. That word makes me think of shredded tissue paper. You can have so much fun with shredded tissue paper…
I’ve reached the point where I can no longer bear to buy new things. (Apart from food and underwear, obviously)
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It is beautiful in it’s perfection
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Thank you.
I thought of you while I was writing. I hoped you would like the poem.
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Oooh, yes. I used to keep my dearest treasures in shoe boxes.
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I still do. I run the accessory department of our local Oxfam charity shop (in other words i sort, price and display shoes, handbags, scarves etc. a lot of the shoes arrive in boxes, and the customers don’t want the boxes. i can’t bear to fold them up for recycling, so i take them home. I have shelves piled high with shoeboxes instead of cupboards. At this rate I’m going to have to start buying things to fill the boxes, just so they are not redundant!
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😊 xox
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Hallo Jane 🙂 perfection and how the shoe box fits 🙂 I don’t think it’s odd to have a thing for boxes. I also can’t bear to destroy or throw away anything as useful as a good box, even if it can be recycled. And butterfly wings, how perfect they are!
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…Until you touch them. They’re so fragile…
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I only touch them with my eyes 🙂 Boxes on the other hand handle nicely and if they don’t I’ll recycle – although I do hoard too much for potential creative uses that I never get around to! And of course as soon as you junk stuff you would have needed use of it 🙂
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I just realised I’ve been LIVING in a box, and that’s not good.Since I began blogging I’ve become surrounded with like-minded people. It’s lovely to find others who share my passions and my take on life.
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