The Kindness of Tulips
“Kindness
Consider the tulip,
how long ago
someone’s hands planted a bulb
and gave to this place
a living scrap of beauty,
how it rises every spring
out of the same soil,
which is, of course,
not at all the same soil,
but new.
Consider the six red petals,
the yellow at the center,
the soft green rubber of the stem,
how it bows to the world.
How, the longer you sit beside the tulip,
the more you want to bow, too.
It is this way with kindness:
someone plants in someone else
a bit of beauty –a kind word, perhaps, or a touch,
the gift of their time or their smile.
And years later, in that inner soil,
that beauty emerges again,
pushing aside the dead leaves,
insisting on loveliness,
a celebration of the one who planted it,
the one who perceives it, and
the fertile place where it has grown.”
Dear Friends,
It’s tulip season and this poem just spoke to me. I wanted to share it with you.
We are intricately connected to each other and to the earth. As the tulips begin to peek through the soil, we start our transition into spring and summer. Our practice this week will ground us and help us to welcome Spring.
Thank you for all of the kindness that you plant in this world.
Love & kindness,
Nina G