Danusha Laméris

Something to Start Us Off

Hello Friends. This is our first Blog post and we wanted to start this incredible journey with the right foot forward. We, Obi and Jen, are both in recovery. We were both profoundly affected by addiction, and have learned that going it alone is just NOT an option for either of us. With the inception of NMWMWN, we hope to reach and have a positive influence on those that seek positive change in their lives, and those that want to help others. This is one of the ways we have chosen to spread the message of hope. Read on for a beautiful poem by Danusha Laméris to set the tone. Enjoy!

— Jen, Co-Founder NMWMWN

Small Kindnesses

I’ve been thinking about the way, when you walk
down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs
to let you by. Or how strangers still say “bless you”
when someone sneezes, a leftover
from the Bubonic plague. “Don’t die,” we are saying.

And sometimes, when you spill lemons
from your grocery bag, someone else will help you
pick them up. Mostly, we don’t want to harm each other.

We want to be handed our cup of coffee hot,
and to say thank you to the person handing it. To smile
at them and for them to smile back. For the waitress
to call us honey when she sets down the bowl of clam chowder,
and for the driver in the red pick-up truck to let us pass.

We have so little of each other, now. So far
from tribe and fire. Only these brief moments of exchange.
What if they are the true dwelling of the holy, these
fleeting temples we make together when we say, “Here,
have my seat,” “Go ahead — you first,” “I like your hat.”

Copyright 2019 Danusha Laméris. First published in Healing the Divide: Poems of Kindness and Connection from Green Writers Press. Bonfire Opera (University of Pittsburgh Press 2020).

Source: https://womensvoicesforchange.org/small-kindnesses-by-danusha-lameris.htm

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