Sunday, January 3, 2021

A Challenge

I don't expect anyone to look to me for guidance or wisdom but recently I've been thinking about a precept I believe is worth attempting.

 Be Kind. 

It doesn't always come easy to me; I can be sarcastic and snarky (anything for a laugh) and come across as unfeeling. But I'm going to try to remember first of all to

Be Kind. *

 

 “Dogfish” by Mary Oliver (an excerpt)

 . . .

You don’t want to hear the story

of my life, and anyway

I don’t want to tell it, I want to listen

to the enormous waterfalls of the sun.


And anyway it’s the same old story – – –

a few people just trying,

one way or another,

to survive.


Mostly, I want to be kind.

And nobody, of course, is kind,

or mean,

for a simple reason.


And nobody gets out of it, having to

swim through the fires to stay in

this world.


 Okay, perhaps I need to qualify my precept. I don't intend to be kind to the Loser-in-Chief or any of his enablers.  The kindest  thing I can say about him is that I suspect he was damaged by his upbringing. I  mean kindness in personal interactions--whether real or virtual. (And what is real, anyway?)

(An

4 comments:

Anvilcloud said...

She's such a fine poet.

I have begun to crack your book although 'crack' isn't very descriptive of opening an ebook. I was struck by all of the fighting over an election. It seemed like the America way.

Vicki Lane said...

Way too true, John. Our sad, beleaguered country.

Nancy Emanuel said...

I've been struggling with the terrible hateful feelings that have crept into, and inhabited my heart over the last four years. I'm determined to eradicate them and give myself the gift of love this year. The Law of Attraction is going to be my guiding light these next months, looking forward with the greatest hope and my heart bursting with positive thoughts, love and above all KINDNESS. My best wishes to everyone for a healthy, positive and better 2021!

Thérèse said...

You know I think we have to concentrate on the ones who deserve to be kind with and ignore, as much as we can of course, the ones who are not kind. Whenever we have to deal with the unkind ones, let's be cool and deal with them in an even and pleasant tone without stating anything personal. Easy to say, hard to follow..