Naomi Shihab Nye

I have been reading this wonderful Arab-American poet. I love the poem she wrote about her Palestinian grandmother, called "Stain." It ends with these words:

"What was the thing she never gave up?
The simple love of her difficult place."

Here's something else Nye wrote: a Letter from Naomi Shihab Nye to Any Would-Be Terrorists. I especially love these words:

"Sometimes I wish everyone could have parents from different countries or ethnic groups so they would be forced to cross boundaries, to believe in mixtures, every day of their lives. Because this is what the world calls us to do."

I'm not making political comments on the situation in the Middle East. I'm just saying - human beings on both sides are having their lives torn apart. And it makes me very sad.

As someone else who has a "simple love of her difficult place," I'm crying today for those people.