Listening Out for Kindness OR The Other Side of Silence
Some days, it can feel
as if we are falling apart; everything goes wrong or at least not according to
plan and listening or reading to the daily News extends that sense of falling
apart to the world itself; it and we, it seems, are in free fall ...
Whatever happened to
kindness, we may well wonder? Suddenly, we hear or read about a simple act of
kindness that touches the heart, restores our sense of being part of something
worthwhile even if that worthwhile-ness is vulnerable to attack from extreme
forces that have no place in in a world where love, peace, tolerance and
kindness are seen as strengths not weaknesses, and just because these are
elements of human nature with which we will almost certainly always have to
contend doesn’t mean to say we cannot win our own personal war against them if
not every battle.
A teacher who was
well-liked but considered eccentric, once told a noisy class, ‘Shut up, the lot
of you! Now, listen to the silence. Yes, listen
to the silence. The chances are it’s an angry one, at the very least frustrated. And what’s on the other side,
eh? Kindness, that’s what, a whole new world to which the inner ear will lead
any one of us who can be bothered to listen out and head for it.’ For a whole
minute, you could have heard a pin drop, and then we pressed on with the lesson,
about which I recall nothing, 50+ years later, but that silence.
'Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind.' - Henry James
'Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind.' - Henry James
LISTENING OUT FOR KINDNESS or THE OTHER SIDE OF SILENCE
There is a darkness
that is not night, but an
absence
of light
in a space that is no
vacuum,
but filled
with all the sound and fury
of an alarm clock
ticking towards a clapping
of hands
in applause
for a sorry world’s falling
to pieces
There is a silence
that is not quiet, but an
absence
of any sound,
freeing the senses to urge
cloth ears
open up
to all the sound and fury
of unspeakable
injustices, prejudices,
malpractices,
sure to cause
a sorry world’s falling
to pieces
There is a voice
that has no words, but an
absence
of expression
meant to shatter the
darkness,
release the silence
to all the sound and fury
of the human heart
raging against powers-that-be
setting agendas
that would see its humanity
in pieces
There is a life force
that births humankind in a
stream
of consciousness
and nurtures it in the
darkness
of a silence
daring the sound and fury
of human existence
to find a voice, make itself
heard
with the resonance
of a kindness sure to piece
us
together
Copyright R. N. Taber 2015
Labels: anger, conscience, human nature, human spirit, kindness, life forces, love, mind-body-spirit, personal space, poetry, relationships, self-awareness, self-control, self-discipline, sensitivity, silence
posted by R. N. Taber | 08:48
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