Kinder, More Gentler Beautiful World

There are always flowers for those who want to see them.  – Henri Matisse

Several years ago during a challenging time in my life, a wise friend suggested I learn how to “drink from a deeper well.” She said slowing down and paying attention guides an individual to a deeper place within, and a kinder, more gentler beautiful world is revealed. Today, with the daily news filled with one horror story after another, seeking those moments of grace reminds me how much the world has to offer.

Kindness and Compassion

Joyburst
Artist Julie Hoppe

The very act of seeking puts things in motion. For me, witnessing currents of kindness, beauty and compassion changes how my daily life is judged. Each morning my mantra is to pause and be awake to what’s happening around me, but I find I often fail. Andre Lorde said. “We have to consciously study how to be tender with each other until it becomes a habit.”

Last week, a wonderful experience happened. Josiah, a tree trimmer, a bear of a man with arms the size of railroad ties, came to my house and we walked the yard. He charged ahead, suddenly stopping. A baby robin about two weeks old with a few perfectly beautiful sprouted feathers was in the short grass. He knelt down using his fingers as a tiny cradle and tenderly scooped the fledgling laying the baby bird in the nest. Love came upon Josiah’s heart.

Poetry teaches
In Healing the Divide: Poems of Kindness and Connection, James Crews who edited the anthology said, “Poetry, with its intimate focus on everyday moments in time, is an ideal medium for uncovering the grace that is always available to us… .” The collection offers full-hearted poems of compassion and meaning teaching us what it means to live in relationship, experiencing deep connections attending one another.

The value of giving attention to what is around us may be one of the most life changing things we do as writers and artists. Ted Kooser suggests we set aside our usual routines and worries. Instead he said consider “watch{ing} a young man take a drink from a running tap, then wipe his cheek with the sleeves of his short.” Or, as he noted, “see described in words and images a woman giving her invalid father a bath, rinsing the thin hair over his sutured scalp.”

Portals of light
James Crews said  “..small openings are all we get—and they become portals out of our grief and despair, even if just for a few minutes.”  These moments of connection open up points of light and healing—renewal—giving substance to our creativity and gratitude for those sometimes fleeting experiences. A kinder, more gentler world is felt.

I’ll keep looking for those small openings, those electrical moments of  grace, as the world beams light, letting us know little miracles are happening with each breath we take. — Becky Breed

Writing/Creativity Exercise:

1. Be present and attentive with someone you care about. Observe with intention. Rilke said, when“ Work of seeing is done, Now practice heart-work.” Write a Tiny Love Story 100 words or less about someone you adore.
2. Read Shoulders by Naomi Shehab Nye paying close attention to these lines: We’re not going to be able/to live in this world/if we’re not willing to do what he’s doing/with one another. Create a poem or piece of artwork about what you’d HANDLE WITH CARE.
3. Joyburst, Julie Hoppe’s lovely “bouquet of burst-open hearts” captures what James Crews penned in Small Pleasures. “You live… learning to lean in the direction of whatever small pleasures you can gather from your own backyard.” Find a beautiful spot of flowers, breathe. Lean into your small moments and create.