I took this picture about a week ago. The colors are even more vivid now.
Since I last wrote, we had Fall Break from the college. I managed to get the papers graded, and then spent several days at the ocean. Wonderful birdwatching!
Trying to get back into writing , but having a difficult time. I've been escaping into murder mysteries and various thrillers. Read and loved Louise Penny's A Rule Against Murder. She's very good portraying the inner conflicts of her characters as well as the intricacies of the plot. Also read Minette Walters' The Chameleon's Shadow. Very different from the Perry book, but also very good.
Today I finished reading Jean Vanier's wonderful Harvard lecture From Brokenness to Community.
This is more of what I should be reading! Not to mention that it's a reading for my freshmen. It's a very powerful essay on those two words, on their deep, inner meaning. He's talking from his long experiences living in the L'Arche Community, but it applies to my own experiences in my own religious community.
Get this: "Community is a place of conflict: conflict inside each one of us. There is first of all the conflict between the values of the world and the values of community, between togetherness and independence... The next source of conflict is in learning to give space to others so that they may grow, rather than competing with them and lording over them... The third source of conflict is the conflict between caring for people and caring only for oneself.... The fourth source of conflict is between being open and being closed... In order to have greater security, people can sacrifice their personal growth, freedom and becoming, to the god of belonging - belonging which gives security and power... A community which is called to keep people ope is a vulnerable community that takes risks." ( Vanier 33) I could go on and on. Very thought provoking, very much calling me to reflection on my own ways.
1 comment:
Thank you for posting that about community - I needed that too.
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