Hello loved ones,
The poem I am sending you this week, which I wrote last year, looks very different in light of current global politics.
I refuse to fall into traps of hatred. My poem ‘Charity’ is about showing kindness to strangers.
As a stranger to this city, to Oslo, I would have been lost without those who reached out their hands and said: here let me help you.
They asked for nothing in return.
Sometimes in life we need a helping hand to get back on our feet. Now I am strong, I am starting to help others up too.
Acts of kindness, big or small, systemic or random, go a long way towards changing lives for the better. Kindness and love is the fabric of community.
This February, I will be thinking and writing about love - not just in the romantic sense but as a tool for creating better societies. I strongly believe that love is a learned art that we must remember and begin to teach one another. Under the rubric of love falls compassion, forgiveness, wisdom, courage, strength and discernment. Love is the place from which these vital qualities for peace are cultivated.
Love always,
Eleanor
Charity
If
When you reach the gates of the city
Where your fortune is promised
You find they are locked for the likes of you
Go around the back
along the way grab the
hands of the others who are lost as well
on your way
look for the windows
with lights
knock
There are people who
will say
here is some bread, and cheese, and wine
and here is a job, some woolen socks
and here is what you need to
know to go forwards in a place like this
Take
a map of the people here
Charity is as ancient and timeless as I am
I never forget a person who has invited me in
and given me
bread