The days immediately before and after New Year's Day are always a time of new beginnings. For some, this is a time of making resolutions about things we want to change, things we want to improve, attitudes we want to change ... whatever the specific choices, this is a time for starting anew.
Sometimes the newness of it all comes from within. By this I mean that the change is something we conciously choose to effect about ourselves, whether that is a behaviour, an attitude or an outlook on life. At other times, resolutions are offered to us by circumstances, or dare I say God's promptings, and therefore the source is from without.
The other day, I was invited to attend an informal gathering. The pretense for the meeting was to review some of the Christmas festivities and to comment on the successes as well as areas of possible improvement for future consideration. Yes, this discussion did take place, but there was another deeper reality unfolding, one that opens yet another avenue for adventure, and another possibility for appreciating God's at times not so subtle invitations.
Depending on our work relationships, some of us have many opportunities to meet vast numbers of people, but we seldom have occasions to truly get to know the heart of the person that beats below the surface, and as a result we end up only knowing the externals about most people. Dare I say that this is the first level of relationships? However on occasion we do get the opportunity to move to a deeper level of knowing one another, perhaps the level of learning just a bit about the history, culture or background of the people we interact with. At this level, it's tricky business because we don't ever want to delve too deeply too quickly into the realm of another person's history, but curiosity sometimes is a good thing.
Relationships are two way streets. If we want to get to know another person, we have to be willing to share a part of ourselves in return. Thus the dance of questions and answers becomes an interchange of sharing parts of ourselves with one another, and in the end is this not what God intended in the first place: that we should live together in peace, that we should walk together through life?
Perhaps Robert Fulghum had it right all along: All we really need to know in life, we learn in Kindergarten, and the rest of life is spent just putting those lessons into action.
2 comments:
This reflection was so well written! Worth the wait... I think we might just be on the right track if we do go back to kindergarten and become childlike again. Kindergarten is a time when we learn at a phenomenal rate, probably because we LOOK, we love, we share, we trust, we help, we dream, and we take on new ventures that we might not try if we were adults. And we can do these things because we're okay with risking a part of ourselves and holding someone's hand. Is this what Jesus meant when He said we need to be like children to enter into heaven?
At the end of our earthly journey, is it not the relationships that we have formed with others that we will be remembered by? The early relationship dance of questions and their answers can help to develop understanding. That understanding grows into appreciation for the journey of others and in turn helps us to grow in love for one another. Is this not what Jesus asked of us?
It is sad to reflect that in the fast paced twenty-first century few of us take that time to learn more about each other.
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