A Wish

I suppose it's evident from the content of this blog that I have an affinity for poetry. It's such a treat to have a poem from The Writer's Almanac delivered to my inbox and read by Garrison Keillor every day. Sometimes, when I read a poem, I find myself rereading particular lines again and again. Here is part of today's poem called "Kindness" by Naomi Shahib Nye. The italicized lines are those that drew me back today.

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 everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.


I have this quote from Theodore Isaac Rubin on the wall in my classroom:
“Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom.”

I am making a wish for us; here it is: That both the delivery and receipt of kindess goes with us everywhere, like a shadow or a friend.