01/04/2020
Something from the home office desk of one of our directors , Rene Barry, to our staff . We asked permission to send this on to our clients and colleagues as well and she agreed .💛 Thank you Rene .
“As a mother to two young kids my initial reaction was one of fear and anxiety and the instant desire to wrap them in cotton wool and protect them from the world. I had to manage their overwhelming emotions about the change in everything that they knew about the world while managing my own anxieties, uncertainties and fears about everything that was happening and how the world as I had known it had changed in an heartbeat. As I settled them in their beds and listened to their peaceful and rhythmical breathing I reflected on the days that was and the days that were going to come and realized that as fearful as I was about their future there were so many out there who were not as blessed as I was and that despite all my fears I needed to be filled with compassion and kindness and love for my fellow beings. Despite not being able to physically reach out to show that I care, there were other ways of being kind. I am trying to instil a sense of kindness in my children that is different to what they were taught, being quietly kind in the home, social and schooling environment, which I hope are lessons that they will always remember. I came across this poem which I feel reflects our current world and speaks so deeply about kindness. I trust that you and your loved ones will be safe during this time
Kindness
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,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window 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.
—Naomi Shihab Nye”
Together we will get through this 💛
