I try really hard to write original stuff for these weekly newsletters.
Every once in awhile, though, someone captures my thoughts far more articulately than I ever could.
This poem from Danusha Laméris expresses my feelings on “tiny acts of humanity” perfectly.
What I call “pennies in the cup” she calls the “true dwelling of the holy” which makes me smile…
Small Kindnesses
I’ve been thinking about the way, when you walk
down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs
to let you by. Or how strangers still say “bless you”
when someone sneezes, a leftover
from the Bubonic plague. “Don’t die,” we are saying.
And sometimes, when you spill lemons
from your grocery bag, someone else will help you
pick them up. Mostly, we don’t want to harm each other.
We want to be handed our cup of coffee hot,
and to say thank you to the person handing it. To smile
at them and for them to smile back. For the waitress
to call us honey when she sets down the bowl of clam chowder,
and for the driver in the red pick-up truck to let us pass.
We have so little of each other, now. So far
from tribe and fire. Only these brief moments of exchange.
What if they are the true dwelling of the holy, these
fleeting temples we make together when we say, “Here,
have my seat,” “Go ahead—you first,” “I like your hat.”
— The New York Times (9/19/2019), Bonfire Opera
Source: https://www.danushalameris.com/poems
Have a fantastic week!
peace,
Ryan
