From Henri
Nouwen`s book, ¡Gracias! A Latin American Journal:
''More and
more, the desire grows in me simply to walk around, greet people, enter their
homes, sit on their doorsteps, play ball, throw water, and be known as someone
who wants to live with them.
It is a
privilege to have the time and the freedom to practice this simple ministry of
presence…
It is difficult not to have plans...not to
feel that you are working directly for social change.
But I wonder more and more if the first thing
shouldn't be to know people by name, to eat and to drink with them, to listen
to their stories, and to tell your own, and to let them know with words,
handshakes, and hugs that you do not simply like them, but truly love them.''
"If
anything has affected me deeply since I have been living in [Mount
Sinai], it has been the children.
I have recalled that since my eighteenth year
I have not been around children... Yet here I am surrounded by boys and girls
running up to me, giving me kisses, climbing up to my shoulders, throwing balls
at me, and constanly asking for some sign of interest in their lives.
The
children always challenge me to live in the present.
They want
me to be with them here and now, and they find it hard to understand that I
might have other things to do or think about... I marvel at their ability to be
fully present to me.
Their
uninhibited expression of affection and their willingness to receive it pull me
directly into the moment and invite me to celebrate life where it is
found."
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