A Season of Thanksgiving

I just finished reading Mary Pipher's "Writing to Change the World." My 14 yr old daughter is now reading the book as she has an equal passion for recording her thoughts to share with others. I am struck by how infrequently I read authors who contribute to helping others gain insight into themselves. Mary shares with us skills to help develop in ourselves an ability to suspend judgment and criticisms; to give others the space to be "where" they are in their own journeys.

The other book I recently read, "Son - Leaving the servant's quarters for the intimacy of the father's house" along with Mary's book, force within me a change of perspective I wouldn't have gained without having read these works. I, like many of my acquaintances and colleagues, waste too much emotional energy on supposition and speculation about the motives and attitudes behind the actions of others. I am more aware now than before of the necessity to do more than "try" to wear the moccasins of another. She has an exercise I think everyone should attempt at least once; write about a situation from more than one point of view (her exact exercise is to write a story about one person who causes trouble for two other people.) To actually accomplish this exercise requires one get into the mind of another--to think through the other person's perspectives and actually let the feelings of that perspective sit with you.

This Thanksgiving holiday I give thanks for mentors such as Mary Pipher, Barbara Kingsolver, and other great writers who have helped me gain elements of truth and wisdom. I am grateful for my wife who has through example taught me great lessons about relationships and compassion; about commitment and true love (love is a verb!) I am thankful for my children...who are God's way of boiling the narcissism out of adults (if we allow them to teach us life's purpose.) I am thankful for life, and the gift of waking up each morning--a new day; to start anew; to correct poorly shaped habits; to better our communication skills; to appropriate in each day moments of non-busy-ness to examine ourselves and to seek wholeness.

I plan to pour more of my thoughts and self-examination in my blog posts over the next few months. I will not be regular with postings because I have found that to put arbitrary deadlines on myself is to set myself up for failure to hold true to the commitment, and it also makes for lifeless words or rantings about topics which are probably left addressed by those truly passionate about a subject. You will however, see more entries so that I may exercise my writing mind muscle and give voice to those stirrings in my spirit which demand my attention.