Tonight

Tonight the Committee on Lay Leadership met at Nancy's and after we ate they noticed I brought a little book from Parker Palmer along with me. They asked if I wanted to read from it. I hadn't planned to -- but I opened it up and read this:

"Then we get into small groups to learn more about our own natures through the two cases. First, I ask people to help each other identify the gifts that they possess that made the good moment possible. It is an affirming experience to see our gifts at work in a real-life situation--and it often takes the eyes of others to help us see. Our strongest gifts are usually those we are barely aware of possessing. They are a part of our God-given nature, with us from the moment we drew first breath, and w are no more conscious of having them than we are of breathing."

"Then we turn to the second case. Having been bathed with praise in the first case, people now expect to be subjected to analysis, critique, and a variety of fixes: 'If I had been in your shoes, I would have...," or "Next time you are in a situation like that why don't you...?" But I ask them to avoid that approach. I ask them instead to help each other see how limitations and liabilities are the flip side of our gifts how a particular weakness is the inevitable trade-off for a particular strength. We will become better teachers not by trying to fill the potholes in our souls but by knowing them so well that we can avoid falling into them."

What a different way of seeing the world and seeing one another!