{ dwell in possibility }

I have been reading about Emily Dickinson - poet and writer. I have a phrase from one of her poems caught in my mind. "The spreading wide my narrow hands, to gather paradise." I keep repeating it over and over.

I think we each find that at times our hands seem so narrow - but the spreading wide can be an act of discipline and self-love. And the reward can be to gather paradise. I've thought about that as I try to get the courage to try new things and go new places.

Emily Dickinson's poems are inspiring - her life, really, is not. She was eccentric and solitary. But the body of poems she produced - not even discovered until after her death, is astounding.

This all started when I found a magnet that I love: "I dwell in possibility." This phrase is from the first line of one of her most famous poems.

I'm surrounded by women who dwell in possibility. I meet them online, I read their words, I work with them, they are my family and my friends. They live lives of possibility and hope. For them my deepest gratitude.

I Dwell in Possibility

by Emily Dickinson

I dwell in Possibility –

A fairer House than Prose –

More numerous of Windows –

Superior – for Doors –

Of Chambers as the Cedars –

Impregnable of eye –

And for an everlasting Roof

The Gambrels of the Sky –

Of Visitors – the fairest –

For Occupation – This –

The spreading wide my narrow Hands

To gather Paradise.


graphic image by thehistoryshirt.com