Yellow Petal abstract by Carol at radiatingblossoms
Today I’d like to recognize another blog that inspires me. I met Carol when I joined the WordPress family through another blogger. She has an amazing blog called radiatingblossoms. She features photographs of flowers, quotes and poems. Everything she posts touches my heart in a special way. Her photos always offer a unique perspective on nature’s beauty and inspire deep-hearted feelings (I can’t really explain it…). Her quotes always invite me to discover something new or connect with something important – for example, I really like the July 4th quote:
“Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It’s a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well, can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.” ~ Pema Chodron
And her selection of poems is simply delicious, like today’s feature:
Kindness
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 everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.
This is really lovely — and thank you for introducing her to us!
So much love to you my friend… 🙂
Just gorgeous..and so knowing… lovely.