Walk around

"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 to practice this simple ministry of presence. Still, it is not as simple as it seems. My own desire to be useful, to do something significant, or to be a part of some impressive project is so strong that soon my time is taken up by meetings, conferences, study groups, and workshops that prevent me from walking the streets. It is difficult not to have plans, not to organize people around an urgent cause, and not to feel that you are working directly for social progress. But I wonder more and more if the first thing shouldn’t be to know people by name, to eat and drink with them, to listen to their stories and tell your own, and to let them know with words, handshakes and hugs that you do not simply like them, but you truly love them."

--Henri Nouwen

Making pearls

There are two ways to make a pearl.

The first one happens when an oyster gets something irritating up inside its shell. And it rubs and rubs, and eventually it forms hard layers of coating, and out of what was painful and broken and scarring comes something valuable. Priceless.

The second way pearls are made is when people plant a "seed" inside an oyster's shell. A little chunk of mother-of-pearl. Clamshell. Not really pearl, but not really an offensive material, either. And it rubs and rubs. And forms its coating. And then it is harvested and sold.

Both are pearls. And the second is generally prettier than the first.

But I still like the first better.