A daisy in any colour is still a daisy I wasn't going to post anything today because we are getting ready for company who is arriving any minute. Can't wait to see them!! But, I read a piece by Henri Nouwen this morning which tied so nicely into the post I wrote yesterday. I wanted to share it with you.
Nouwen's inspirational thoughts were published in a daily journal format entitled Bread for the Journey, which I highly recommend. There are so many thought provoking nuggets to ponder over as well as to aspire to. I also find that I am often bowled over by the serendipity of his writing and of his thoughts with where I seem to be in my own head. His beautiful spiritual prose is simplistic yet very meaningful to me. I wish I had met the man.....
Dated July 21rst:
We become neighbours when we are willing to cross the road for one another. There is so much separation and segregation: between black people and white people, between gay people and straight people, between young people and old people, between sick people and healthy people, between prisoners and free people, between Jews and Gentiles, Muslims and Christians, Protestants and Catholics, Greek Catholics and Latin Catholics.
There is a lot of road crossing to do. We are all very busy in our own circles. We have our own people to go to and our own affairs to take care of. But if we could cross the road once in a while and pay attention to what is happening on the other side, we might indeed become neighbours.
Wonderful advice....from a thought-full man
9 comments:
Puts me in mind of the speeches given in memory of your in-laws this June. There was a lot of crossing the road in their day; and it still goes on. To their generation it was just politics, and a good definition of the political it is!
-robin
robin...it definately was a different political era. whether people were more likely to cross the road is debatable.....one we can have on my back deck sometime soon.
Dana,
have pulled this from a piece i put together on inter-faith dialogue and respect....i love Nouwen's wisdom, his style so beguiling and his love for humanity reflective of the carpenter he follows still (probably to one of those great pubs in heaven, the one king david runs - of course there he's not a king anymore i guess)
Could it be that every now and then our paradigm of thought is forced to change; moments of grace re-shape our thinking and experience, allowing the spiral of discovery to throw us deeper into the radiant mystery of Christ. It was Marcel Proust who said that ‘the real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes.’ Both the weekend of interfaith dialogue and the work of Karen Armstrong encourage us to go beyond our comfort zones, to ask big questions, to enter the struggle of what it means to be human amidst all our suffering, failings and differences.
In an interview with Dave Weich, Karen suggests that, 'If your belief in God makes you come out imbued with a desire to feel with your fellow human beings, to make a place for them in your heart, to work to end suffering in the world, then it’s good. Nobody has the last word on God, whether they’re conservatives or liberals.’
I do not understand grace with my head or my heart – I only know that if we look through vulnerable eyes it meets us where we are but it does not leave us where it found us. Within this landscape of the soul we encounter the hidden God, And this reminds me that our Holy Scriptures are not hitching posts but rather sign posts that point on beyond themselves, and that ultimately we need to remember that it’s sometimes more important to love than to be right.
ps, enjoy your firends
I like reading this post on a Monday morning, just starting work with a cup of coffee. Beautiful photo too.
paul....would love very much to meet you at a pub on earth (as it is in heaven ) to talk about this carpenter you write about. He seems like an interesting chap.
Beautiful words, thank you.
Our eyes....vulnerable when receptive to seeing the realities of the human condition. I like the Proust quote....I think we have a tendancy to try to reach for new landscapes for solutions when in fact the solutions may be found in the landscapes we know if only we can see it differently. As Armstrong states, it takes leaving one's comfort zone.
Reading your last paragraph, I was struck by examples of when I felt the truest grace through my work and it is always when the eyes speak to one another. It is a special (and often unpredictable) moment when vulnerable eyes tell a story to one another. The only way I can describe the feeling....when our vision enables a shift to happen...a shift which begins deep in the soul.
Grace surely doesn't happen when predicted and we can't make it happen no matter how hard we try as far as I can gather. It alights and transforms.....and iluminates those meaningful signposts.
thank you paul.
ps...we had great fun last night...very difficult to stay on task today on little sleep. This is an annual summer reunion that we all look forward to. Though they have headed out already,we all hitch up again in Prince Edward Island in a couple of weeks to continue the wine and song.
anon boxer.....enjoy your morning coffee as I head out for lunch! if you're interested, I think you can google Henri Nouwen's name and the title of the book and arrange for a daily quote to be set to you via email.
take care.
If more people crossed the road the world would be such a better place I think like you in particular I jay walk a lot. I meet and accept evryone it costs nothing to smile or put out a hand.
I love your last to posts. xxx
Great words....I think we can even cross the road to those we neglect in our own lives who we consider close.
shaz....Yeah! I too prefer jay walking. I've never been one to walk a straight line. Today I was headed to a friend's house for lunch and somehow found myself in the middle of the anglican cathedral not far from my office chatting with the an older gentleman who was a guide. It was circuitously on the way...... :)
I left after a couple of moments of sharing the quiet reverence with this man and felt quite uplifted.
K.....thanks K! Good to see you. I totally agree.
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