The poet, Danusha Lameris, has kindly given me permission to share her poem which asks us to remember the ‘Small Kindnesses.’ In today’s harsh world, these are so very important to recognise.
”Small Kindnesses”by Danusha Lameris
I’ve been thinking about the way, when you walkdown a crowded aisle, people pull in their legsto let you by. Or how strangers still say “bless you”when someone sneezes, a leftoverfrom the Bubonic plague. “Don’t die,” we are saying.And sometimes, when you spill lemonsfrom your grocery bag, someone else will help youpick them up. Mostly, we don’t want to harm each other.We want to be handed our cup of coffee hot,and to say thank you to the person handing it. To smileat them and for them to smile back. For the waitressto call us honey when she sets down the bowl of clam chowder,and for the driver in the red pick-up truck to let us pass.We have so little of each other, now. So farfrom tribe and fire. Only these brief moments of exchange.What if they are the true dwelling of the holy, thesefleeting temples we make together when we say, “Here,have my seat,” “Go ahead—you first,” “I like your hat.”
I’ve been up to the Eco Park this evening for a very lovely Samhain celebration where we all remembered our ancestors and friends who are no longer with us and we lit candles in their names as we sat around the fire. I loved the bits of decoration around the atrium.
