Friday 27 May 2016

{Soulfood Friday}










Sometimes poetry is medicine. This is one of my favorite medicine poems.
  
 Kindness

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing. 
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and
     purchase 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 every where
like a shadow or a friend.


Naomi Shihab Nye
  




 Every Friday I'll be pausing to notice something from the week that has nourished my soul. 

A special, sacred-everyday moment captured on camera, or perhaps a snippet from a book, a recipe still warm from the kitchen or something whimsical that simply made me smile.
 * 
Here are a few simple things that have fed my soul this week. 

What has inspired/fed/nourished your soul this week friends? 
*  

 Feel free to link up to your own soulful spaces either at the bottom of this post or in the comments.

   

   

8 comments:

  1. This poem is so nourishing...
    Thank you so much for sharing!

    Julia

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  2. I love the poem, how talented you are.

    and I love the photos too.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Sarah :) The poem is by the amazing weaver of words Naomi Shihab Nye. xx

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  3. How very beautiful this is.
    ~

    Keep Calm & Start Writing...
    23millymay25.blogspot.co.uk

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  4. That is a beautiful poem. I have suffered deep loss recently and this poem really touched me. For me, it's all about the love and the kindness we show to one another. It is not always easy to remember that....and there are times I struggle, but that is what makes us human. I know that with deep sorrow comes appreciation for loving kindness -even in its most simplest forms.

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  5. Thank you for sharing this beautiful poem and photos of your wonderful wild garden.
    Wishing you all a happy weekend!
    Ruby

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  6. Beautiful photos help me feel happy inside and the poem is very healing. Thanks for sharing this week.

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  7. such a beautiful poem, and flowers too

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I treasure each and every one of your comments.
Your kind words never fail to bring a smile to my face:)
At the moment I am going through a busy season of life with 5 girls under my wing! I may not always be able to respond immediately but please know that every word left here is read and appreciated deeply.
xx