I remember when my best friend, Shauna, first got her cancer diagnosis. She went to Costco. As she roamed around the store, she looked at people, and I mean really looked at them ~ not past them, not through them, but at them. If they made eye contact with her, she smiled at them ~ not the smile of a passerby, not the smile of someone whose gaze you may have uncomfortably stumbled upon, but a real, genuine smile - a smile that said, "Hello. You are a child of God. I see you."
She told me later that night that as she looked at people, rather than past them or through them, she just kept thinking, "I wonder what happened in their world today,". She realized that, from all appearances, she just looked like a normal person doing her shopping at Costco after work. Little did anyone who saw her that night know that she'd just gotten news that was completely life-changing and, ultimately, life-taking. She just looked like she was shopping.
How many people do I encounter everyday that I assume are just shopping, or just working, or just reading, or just walking, or just....or just? How many people do I look right past or, worse yet, right through? How many of them needed me to smile the "I see you - you are a child of God" smile? How many times have I needed the same in return?
Shauna frequented Costco, both pre-cancer and post-cancer, but as the disease and treatments progressed, she no longer appeared to be "just doing her shopping after work". The disease, and its pain and its agony, were evident. She got a lot of smiles then - some genuine, some pretty fake, all very much aware. That was hard for her, but, bless her heart, she always gave that genuine, "I see you - you are a child of God" smile to them in return.
I want to give that smile. I need that smile in return. May we all try to be more aware of everyone we come in contact with.
November 19, 2007
November 18, 2007
I am a part of this great online community of faith called "Epinoia Cafe" (www.epinoiacafe.com). Today, I found this posted there by a member of our online community that I only know by name, but hope to meet face-to-face one day soon. Her name is Cat and here is what she posted:
by Joan Chittister (30goodminutes.com):
Struggle changes us; it grows us up. It takes the dew off the rose and the gilt off the silver. It turns the fantasies of life into reality. But struggle does more than that. Struggle cultivates in us the kind of depth that comes from knowing pain as well as pleasure. After that we develop a vision in life as well as expectations. We have insight now as well as experience. We acquire understanding as well as endurance. We grow in compassion for others as well as we grow into character ourselves. Indeed, struggle not only transforms us, it makes us transforming as well.
Once we have truly struggled ourselves with something that stretches the elastic of the spirit, we are able to walk with others in their struggles, too…. When we know the meaning of what it is to struggle with something in life we have finally become human.
There are many parts of this that I completely resonate with, and many words that I hope to now associate with "struggle" - cultivate, depth, develop, vision, insight, experience, understanding, endurance, compassion, character, and transformation. But my favorite phrase from this passage would have to be "elastic of the spirit". I know in my own life, I often forget that my spirit truly is elastic. It has the ability to stretch, bounce back, stretch again, grow, and stretch some more.
I'm stretching right now. It isn't easy - at all. It isn't really even a whole lot of fun. But, easy and fun or not, it is still happening. And maybe that's ok.
by Joan Chittister (30goodminutes.com):
Struggle changes us; it grows us up. It takes the dew off the rose and the gilt off the silver. It turns the fantasies of life into reality. But struggle does more than that. Struggle cultivates in us the kind of depth that comes from knowing pain as well as pleasure. After that we develop a vision in life as well as expectations. We have insight now as well as experience. We acquire understanding as well as endurance. We grow in compassion for others as well as we grow into character ourselves. Indeed, struggle not only transforms us, it makes us transforming as well.
Once we have truly struggled ourselves with something that stretches the elastic of the spirit, we are able to walk with others in their struggles, too…. When we know the meaning of what it is to struggle with something in life we have finally become human.
There are many parts of this that I completely resonate with, and many words that I hope to now associate with "struggle" - cultivate, depth, develop, vision, insight, experience, understanding, endurance, compassion, character, and transformation. But my favorite phrase from this passage would have to be "elastic of the spirit". I know in my own life, I often forget that my spirit truly is elastic. It has the ability to stretch, bounce back, stretch again, grow, and stretch some more.
I'm stretching right now. It isn't easy - at all. It isn't really even a whole lot of fun. But, easy and fun or not, it is still happening. And maybe that's ok.
November 14, 2007
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