QUOTE
Kindness. Before you know what kindness really is you must lose things, feel the future dissolve in a momentlike 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 bebetween the regions of kindness. 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 voicecatches the thread of all sorrows and you see the size of the cloth. Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore.
Naomi Shihab Nye is a Palestinian American poet, songwriter, and novelist. Her work is inspired by her childhood memories and travels, which often include themes of place, belonging, and identity. She has received numerous awards for her body of work, including being named the Young People’s Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation for the 2019–2021 term.
