“Turning the other cheek means showing our enemies that they can only be our enemies while supposing that we are anxiously clinging to our private property, whatever it is: our knowledge, our good name, our land, our money, or the many objects we have collected around us. But who will be our robber when everything he wants to steal from us becomes our gift to him?”
― Henri Nouwen
What have you let go of in order to stay in good relation with someone?
All too often life can feel like juggling flaming clubs: work, family, responsibilities to the community or the larger world fly past our noses, barely under control. It can be done. It’s also exhausting.
What enables you to set down the flaming clubs for a moment and take a breath?
It seems only a matter of moments between when a strawberry is not quite ripe and when it is past its prime.
What are you waiting for? How will you know when the time is ripe?
Sometimes it’s worth it to take a flying leap, to let go into the unknown. It’s also sometimes worth it to make sure that you are leaping into deep water than can safely receive you, rather than a brick wall.
What would you like to leap toward?
We say an answer is “on the money” if it’s exactly right, but it can be awfully tempting to make choices that are about the money rather than on the money. Being able to pay the bills matters, but society also makes a lot of promises to us about how money will make us happy that turn out not to be reliably true.
What choice have you made that was “on the money” even though it resulted in your not having as much money?
