Taking a walk with Naomi Shihab Nye

I am an avid On Being listener. Have been for years. I listened to Naomi Shihab Nye, “Before You Know Kindness As the Deepest Thing Inside…” (Link to OnBeing conversation.) From that moment on, I have been inspired by her work. Her work resonants. I am taking a walk with her words this week. 

Kindness

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to gaze at 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. — From “Kindness” by Naomi Shihab Nye

I few months ago, I listened to an “On Being” podcast conversation between Naomi Shihab Nye and Krista Teppet, “Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside . . .“. She read this poem during the conversation. I have thought about this poem ever since. As someone who spends time connecting kindness, gratitude, and wide-awakeness (ultimately/hopefully, living more kindly, gratefully, and wide-awake), her words made me think.

Read entire post here.

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Songbook

Tiny keyboard bearing the massive reverie of the past— 
press one button, we’re carried away on a country road, 
marching with saints, leaving the Red River Valley… 
here is every holiday you hated, every hard time, 
each steamy summer wish. — From “Songbook” by Naomi Shihab Nye

My life has a songbook. There is a collection of songs that immediately transport me to particular times and places. Musics situates and moves with amazing specificity. I can’t remember my passwords for anything, but a lyric from a Boston song from the 1970’s rolls off my tongue. I have to record my hotel room number in notes on my phone, but entire Indigo Girls’ albums are etched in my memory like sacred texts. I often walk into a room and forget why I went there, but I can perform classical Broadway tunes without missing a beat.

Read entire post here.

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So Much Happiness

Since there is no place large enough
to contain so much happiness,
you shrug, you raise your hands, and it flows out of you
into everything you touch. You are not responsible.
You take no credit, as the night sky takes no credit
for the moon, but continues to hold it, and share it,
and in that way, be known. — From Naomi Shihab Nye’s “So Much Happiness“

Happiness expands. Happiness commands Happiness sings. Happiness brings. Happiness radiates. Happiness permeates. Happiness soothes. Happiness moves. Happiness heals. Happiness feels. Happiness shines. Happiness mines. Happiness defies. Happiness multiplies. Happiness builds. Happiness wields. Happiness floats. Happiness notes. Happiness forgives. Happiness outlives. Happiness lifts. Happiness shifts. Happiness shares. Happiness pairs. Happiness breathes. Happiness bleeds. Happiness wiggles. Happiness giggles. Happiness glows. Happiness flows. Happiness times. Happiness rhymes.

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