Poetry Project, V. 11.0, Day 12

 WOOOO!  I did it!  I logged on on the actual day I'm supposed to!  Hey, I take the little victories, you know?

So, in furthering this week of looking at healing neighborhoods with words, we've taken a look at some biases and the way we encounter one another.  That's great, but those aren't really "actions" per se.  They are passive elements of living in a neighborhood.  We can choose to ignore them.  Actions are a bit different - they require us purposefully doing something to initiate a response.  That kind of action is what inspires today's words.  Healing is change, and in order to change, we have to take action - purposeful and intentional action.

Random Kindness

reaching out is never easy,

when everyone is a stranger,

and there's no idea if you will be greeted 

as friend or foe.

the divisions run deep, here,

on a street people forget about,

in a part of the city no one knows how to find.

but there are opportunities,

if you look,

if you search for them,

if you try.

it's a wave,

a way of being,

always polite and friendly,

greeting with a smile, 

asking after the neighbors,

taking notice of them.

some care,

some don't,

some cannot fathom why you would try,

but eventually,

they start to smile and wave back.

then - one day -

you catch a moment of need,

and that's the tough part:

deciding to take action,

to deliberately put yourself out there to encounter another,

and let them know they are worth your time.

Certainly not the greatest piece, by far, but healing is a kind of tough topic, and dealing with it the way I've chosen to....well, it takes some time.  But more to the point, healing cannot happen if we do not try.  I think it was Dr. Seuss who said, "Unless someone like you cares an awful lot, nothing is going to get better - it's not."  We have to care and we have to try.

Thanks for reading,

Me.