“There’s a place in this brain
where hate won’t grow.
I touch its riddle: wind, and seeds.
Something pokes us as we sleep.
It’s late but everything comes next.”
~Naomi Shihab Nye, from “Jerusalem”
***************
It’s not too late to live a nuanced life.
A life of questions
knowing some may never be answered.
A life lived,
recognizing different stories,
yet worthy.
Sitting with distinctions, flavors, subtile variations.
Not inviting in hate.
Instead,
nurturing kindness,
because only kindness makes sense.
Honoring all stories.
Battles.
Loves.
Struggles.
Dreams.
Living a nuanced life is simple…and difficult,
acknowledging judgment while whispering,
I don’t know your story.
I may never hear the details.
but if you are willing to share,
I will listen.
I will honor your existence
because
I don’t know your story.
***************
“Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to gaze at bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say,
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.”
Naomi Shihab Nye, from “Kindness”
(When we traveled cross country last fall, we observed many tent cities. Some under highways, others scattered in parks or on the beach. I wondered about the inhabitants of these tents. Why were they living in such conditions? How did they end up there? Did they have no place else to go? Was it mental illness, bankruptcy, loss? Instead of quick judgment, I felt the need to offer up grace, because as the poet Naomi Shiva Nye wrote, “Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore.”)
