<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class=""><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Kindness</div><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""> </p><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Before you know what kindness really is</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">you must lose things,</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">feel the future dissolve in a moment</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">like salt in a weakened broth.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">What you held in your hand,</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">what you counted and carefully saved,</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">all this must go so you know</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">how desolate the landscape can be</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">between the regions of kindness.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">How you ride and ride</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">thinking the bus will never stop,</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">the passengers eating maize and chicken </div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">will stare out the window forever.</div><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""> </p><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness, </div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho </div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">lies dead by the side of the road.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">You must see how this could be you,</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">how he too was someone</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">who journeyed through the night with plans </div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">and the simple breath that kept him alive.</div><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""> </p><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside, </div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing. </div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">You must wake up with sorrow.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">You must speak to it till your voice</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">catches the thread of all sorrows</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">and you see the size of the cloth.</div><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""> </p><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">only kindness that ties your shoes</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">only kindness that raises its head</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">from the crowd of the world to say</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">it is I you have been looking for,</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">and then goes with you every where</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">like a shadow or a friend.</div><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""> </p><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Naomi Shihab Nye</div></div><br class=""><br class=""><div class="">
<div style="orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; widows: auto; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class="">"The person who is in love with their vision of community will destroy community. But the person who loves the people around them will create community everywhere they go.”</div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""> - Dietrich Bonhoeffer</div></div>
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