(photo H Volker)
Blessed be you pilgrim if you discover that one step back to help another is more valuable than a hundred forward without seeing what is at your side.
I just hope that is self explanatory in this day and age. Not only that but that we should feel that in our fibers. We should know this without saying, simple right? But it does get more complicated in real life when we start seeing people next to us that don’t look like us for instance. Or we see people that somehow don’t make the grade with us. Or people that have maddened us or betrayed us. How do we navigate through?
Early this morning I had a dream and like most of my dreams they were just glimpses of things. I don’t see a lot of build up or context just maybe intent or emotion. But the jest of it was that I was working for a group that would deliver baskets of tapas to places. Donors would call in to buy a basket and the idea was they could send it to a certain street corner in the city. Tapas may appear at your corner. Maybe there were tables on all the corners in that magic city, anything is possible.
It sort of fits in with #6 nicely.
nicely loves, Felipé.
Hi boss,
To me, this one should come with two corollaries. As pilgrims, we are certainly good at looking to the sides and connect with the fellows walking by… and once back, we seem to have gained 360 degrees vision to scan the environment and identify who may need a helping hand, and because we are good to see the good in others, if we can, we extend the hand (and more often than not, we can).
Now, there are also two pieces to consider: one is the good old one from the flights, “put your oxygen mask first”. It is not usually well understood but it is essential, the burn-out of the helper or the caregiver is a real thing, and while we may feel like we should always can, sometimes we just can’t…
The other one is the healthy boundaries… I listened in one of the pilgrims table, one of the guests, saying that there was this woman, a pilgrim from somewhere, who showed up in an albergue and said she had lost her wallet and couldn’t pay; someone else offered help and another offered to take her to dinner… a few days later, the same situation happened in another place, and one of the persons who listened to this woman in the other albergue went to talk to the hospitalero, and the hospitalero said something like he knew, and “it was ok”. And I kept thinking that such a situation was not ok. We are not to judge, but also, there are healthy boundaries that are built and self supported by truth, trust and the ability to rely in the others.
It makes me think of something a priest friend of mine usually says: “There is a good news and a better news. The good news is that there is a Messiah, the better news is that it is not you.”
Healthy love,
Cris
Cris ~ yes, very good. Sometimes it gets tricky for sure but the idea of limits and priorities is important. I like your priest friend and his thought. My Rebecca thought that was great.
It is warming up here and starting to rain so the snow will slowly rot. Catherine and myself hitched a ride with Wiley and Henna and got into town for beer and wine and Valentine’s cards. It was fun blasting through the snow in Wiley’s rig. February fun, Felipé.x
Surely that ride was fun!!! Hope you had a lovely Valentine’s day!
Rainy here too… in fact, it has been raining and raining for days… where is the summer?!
Cris ~ the four of us in the truck and we were a little more boisterous than usual. No one is used to being around people anymore I guess. Kind of goofy. Maybe that is what the Oasis will feel like. I hope so! Felipé.x