Sun and Shadow

Usual kindness is like the warm glow of the sun in the morning throwing shadows across streets and alleys, rooftops and trees

In a poem by Naomi Shihab Nye, she wrote that ‘you must know sorrow’. 

I didn’t understand 

until 

I remembered sorrows in my life 

and kindness I yearned for, 

kindness offered me 

that gentled

my aching heart with

a cup of tea

a meal

a chance to cry 

a chance to laugh

when energy was arid and spent. 

This odd pairing of kindness and sorrow 

showed me they are 

as mated as sun and shadow.

“Before you know what kindness really is 

you must lose things,”

~ Naomi Shihab Nye, ‘Kindness