The Mercury – Friday

In a world that is enduring senseless violence and illogical expressions of hate, vengeance, and selfishness, I hope that you will have a merciful weekend. 

Such a weekend begins with you and with me. 

I know, I know, almost every Friday I write to you in the hopes that we will be part of the healing, and I am not going to stop now.

I always see weekends as restful times with the promise of new beginnings.  

Here’s what I am committed to this weekend – it’s called offering or operating in the “opposite spirit” – and I trust you will join me with similar challenges appropriate to your unique context:

• Embracing the stranger

• Welcoming the refugee 

• Forgiving a debt – real or imagined

• Enjoying my sons – watching them explore the world and come to terms with and enjoy their own beauty

• Getting off-line – at least for several extended hours 

• Paying for someone’s meal – and then quietly exiting the restaurant 

• Listening, really listening, to someone who’s not accustomed to being heard

• Trying to be the most generous person I know

I am fully aware that the world will not change because you or I think it is a good idea or because surreptitiously we really want to make the world safer or more predictable for ourselves and our children although there’s nothing of course wrong with that. 

But, we are capable of extracting the most goodness from within ourselves – we each have a really good place within us – and sharing it wildly and extravagantly with others. 

I’ll see you in the paper tomorrow, and then again on Monday.

Posted on July 7, 2017 at 8:19 am in Difficult Relationships   |  RSS feed |   Reply   |   Trackback URL