The Luster of Everyday Things
pictures & poetry celebrating life’s small treasures & simple pleasures
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
Hello, My Old Friend…
The ever-patient listener,
wide white horizon,
sole honest broker,
deft probing therapist.
Hard to look in the face sometimes:
Like a disobedient husband returning to a faithful wife,
I come back to you each morning,
pen in hand
instead of roses.
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About the Book
Do you really value the objects around you or are they just “things” to you? The premise of this book is that part of the pleasure of life—contentment that we can cultivate no matter how much or how little we have—comes from the conscious appreciation of the beauty and the significance of everyday things. Through photographs and poems, the author takes you on a voyage of discovery through the world around you. You are shown, sometimes playfully and sometimes profoundly, that even the simplest of things—a shirt and tie, a kitchen colander, a closed door, or a blue butterfly—can have a shining beauty, secret story, and surprising meaning. Along the way, you are gently reminded that such objects deserve to be “warmed with much handling” and gazed upon with pleasure and gratitude as the tiny treasures they are.
About the Author
Matthew Allen was born and raised in rural British Columbia, Canada. He was educated at Queen’s University (Kingston) and The University of British Columbia where he earned a Ph.D. in English (Renaissance Literature) and won a Research Council of Canada Fellowship. Dr. Allen has held various teaching and administrative posts in North, South, and Central America, and is currently Head of Languages at Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola. Previous publications include articles on renaissance literature and adventure travel as well as his popular guidebook, Self-Care for Teachers, also by Trafford. He lives in Lima, Peru, where he is surrounded by abundant beauty every day, not least of which is that of his wife, Maria del Pilar Ferradas Manucci.