for the sake of strangers

No matter what the grief, its weight,
we are obliged to carry it.
We rise and gather moments, the dull strength
that pushes us through crowds.
And then the young boy gives me directions
so avidly. A woman holds the glass door open,
waits patiently for my empty body to pass through.
All day it continues, each kindness
reaching toward another - a stranger
singing to no one as I pass on the path, trees
offering their blossoms, a retarded child
who lifts his almond eyes and smiles.
Somehow they always find me, seem even
to be waiting, determined to keep me
from myself, from the thing that calls to me
as it must have once called to them –
this temptation to step off the edge
and fall weightless, away from the world.

the whole world speaks - if only we can tune our ears to listen. it ceaselessly finds ways to rescue us from our own self-absorption, if only we are attentive. the poet dorianne laux asks us to respond to the fullness of experience of our humanity. i've often felt this, in moments of rapt wonder - that the world is ever welcoming us with open arms, trying to pull us away from the travails of our mind so we can look towards the gentle beauty it has to offer and immerse ourselves in it. it is we who close all doors, actively separating ourselves from this world that was always ours. and with each door that is opened, in a moment of surrender, we find ourselves bathed in the light of love and kindness. these are the words that come to me each day, as i walk to school and back.