Kindness

I made this photograph from my bedroom window at dawn, as the light of the sun gilded the top of snow-laden, ice-encrusted tree limbs. The word that came to me was “kindness,” the kindness of sunlight. Human kindness always stirs me, but surely kindness isn’t merely a human impulse. The companion animal that snuggles close to us when we’re ill. The hen that shelters an orphaned duckling. The mycelium that holds a forest in place. We are all involved in one another. I’d fallen asleep last night watching a documentary on Morten Lauridsen, who composed the music for James Agee’s poem that begins,

Sure on this shining night
Of star made shadows round,
Kindness must watch for me
This side the ground. 

The haunting chorale (with words and sheet music) is here.

The documentary, about a decade old and packed with his music and views from the island where he lives, is streaming free until March 1, in honor of Lauridsen’s 80th birthday.