Kindness - Why Bother? A poetry mash up for World Kindness Day

​Kindness - Why Bother?
 
Because right now, there is someone
out there with
a wound in the exact shape
of your words.
 
There is someone who needs your smile,
some eye contact,
a gentle touch, a listening ear,
a kind word, a safe space to just be.
 
How desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
Continue to remind people you meet
that each is as good as the other
and that no one is beneath nor above you.
 
7-8 billion human beings, they are the same as your brothers and sisters,
we are very close,
more in common than that which divides us,
our lives are much better when we live with the spirit of brotherhood and sisterhood.
 
The heart that has been shattered by a thousand cuts of unkindness,
or through unkind circumstances beyond their control,
can again be mended,
through compassion,
through kindness,
through acceptance,
through love.
 
People often don’t need to be saved,
they need to be heard, seen, understood and loved,
that’s how we help them heal so they can save themselves,
it’s how we heal ourselves and heal the world.
 
Kindness to self,
kindness to others,
kindness to the planet.
 
Healing comes through kindness and love,
in kindness and love,
it comes through understanding ourselves and others,
our healing is in light and through light.
 
There is a crack, a crack in everything,
that’s how the light gets in,
growing inside us, through the sadness and pain,
the light,
​the gold,
growing and flowing, and lighting up the world.
 
 
One
 
Kindness
 
At
 
A
 
Time

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​I wrote this piece this morning taking inspiration, and some direct lines, from things I have read and seen, creating a mash up in honour of The World Kindness Movement and World Kindness Day. The piece incorporates my own words along with words from others: Sean Thomas Dougherty, Naomi Shihab Nye, Dr Maya Angelou, The Dalai Lama, Jo Cox, Jurgita Gerulskyte, Leonard Cohen and UNESCO. 
 
Wishing you all a wonderful World Kindness Day!
 
Jo