“And people used to ask me a lot when I was younger, “Why do you write about common things? Normal, like regular little things?” And I said, “Well, what do you have in your life? I mean, I’m not living like in Star Trek. I have common things in my life. What else do I have?” But I don’t think that the things are themselves common. I think it’s a miracle that anything works.

I’ve been thinking about Flint, Michigan a lot these days. I think about the miracle of plumbing a lot and all the mysteries we don’t see under the soil. The pipes, the wires, the wireless connections now.

I mean, just thinking about everything that’s going on, kind of like when you’re a child fascinated by all the stuff that’s going on inside your body, and you didn’t have to tell it to do that. Like, I used to think my stomach is — I’m digesting right now. I didn’t have to tell it to do that. It just did it. That’s incredible. Or the heart beating, or the blood rolling through the veins.

And you think, wow all this stuff goes on. That’s not commonplace to me. That’s miraculous. It’s amazing. And so writing is a way that we’re continually — continuously restored to that. And reading other people’s work, being restored to that. How could you ever feel too old or too dull in a world like that?”

– Naomi Shihab Nye