KINDNESS

The news reads of  
cluster bombs
and record heat 
of all time
and I attend 
a party for a
Ukrainian family
who are now here 
safe from war 
over there, while
I got stuck on 
cluster bombs 
with my heart
clenched like a 
fist pumping
“Enough! Enough!
Enough!”
Then night brings
a dream 
with me standing
in a field with
one friend on
my left 
the other 
up ahead on
my right and
the question,
What is most important now? 
One friend says
this and that 
and the other
and the one up 
ahead says,
“Kindness.”
I look from 
one to the other
not wanting to 
offend in choosing 
but I know and raise
my arms and yell
“KINDNESS”, and 
with a thumbs up I
run through the
golden grass in
the hot sun
to a lone tree
and lay my body down 
with my back 
on the moist 
cool soil
bringing me to 
breath and to
peace as the 
shade brings
balance of 
kindness to 
this hot and
wild earth.

“One who lives in accordance with nature does not go against the way of things. He moves in harmony with the present moment, always knowing the truth of just what to do.”

8th Verse of the Tao Te Ching, trans. by Dr. Wayne Dyer

“We can be sure that the greatest hope for maintaining equilibrium in the face of any situation rests within ourselves.”

Francis J. Braceland

“My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.”

Dalai Lama

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