Sharing poetry

KINDNESS
Naomi Shihab Nye, Palestinian Poet

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,
and the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the windows 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.

Potty trained!

Over a week ago, Tessa decided to wear big girl underwear....and just like that, she's potty trained! HURRAH! I'm so proud of her for figuring it out. I wonder if she was waiting for our lives to calm down, and now that I'm feeling healthy and Ryan's back at work, things felt normal enough for her to take on this new challenge? Or maybe it was just time. In any case, I'm thrilled.

We had some potty setbacks while camping, but now that we're home, everything is going as it should.

More updates later on life in general, our visit with Corina and family, our camping trip, and the rest.

Love,
Kristina