The tag on the shower puff read ‘This product is made from natural materials, imperfections may show with use’. Well indeed. Exactly that.

From time to time we could all do with that label on. Reminding others, reminding ourselves. Remembering this is true for those around us. We are all made of natural materials, our imperfections will show with use.

Nevertheless, even with all this considered, there are some times and some people who are all gift. You will know yours. Your places. The people who are all gift to you.

Here’s one of mine. We’ve never even met, being born over 100 years apart. But when words like this come to you, they can be nothing but gift.

So thank you Rainer Maria Rilke, for your Books of Hours and for these words, written in your day, all gift still today:

'She who reconciles the ill-matched threads of her life, 
and weaves them gratefully into a single cloth -
it is she who drives the loudmouths from the hall 
and clears it for a different celebration 
where the one guest is you 
in the softness of the evening, 
it is you she receives'