l'arche

[shaman]

it's taken me a long time to get here, but maybe it's taken the the time needed for me to arrive at this point. "here" being able to at peace with how life has unfolded for me. i can be at peace with my failed relationships, friendships, mistakes, and the joyful choices i've made

Comments

Return of the Prodigal

[anonymous]

Did reading Nouwen compel you to go out to l'arche? I remember reading his "Return of the Prodigal Son," in college and being moved by what he had to say about the full, gender-transcending, encircling love that is personified in Rembrandt's painting. The thing about the hands really got to me -- I'm sure it's a fairly common insight about that painting but it has stayed with me a long time. I also recall his anecdotes about his brethern at l'arche and how they transformed him on a daily basis. Good to see the tradition is alive and well in its current community.

Again, very refreshing to read your experiences as I face the absurdity of my own pace of worklife. Even working for nonprofits that are "meaningful," are so layered in de-humanizing, de-moralizing interactions with people who you spend so much time with and yet know on such impersonal terms. The beery fellowship with colleagues at the bar, the company dinner out, or the morning banter about what one did on the weekend (or what one didn't do) all completely irrelevant but sadly, the loose thread of human interaction that is what we think of as the silver lining of a mundane work day. And yet those silver linings will rarely alchemize into what one woud call a valuable human interaction.

Much obliged to you for sharing this.

Re: Return of the Prodigal

[shaman]

i did read henry nouwen, but my interest in l'arche started with hearing stories about l'arche daybreak through the center of reconciliation at Duke, and then hearing and reading stories about Jean Vanier [one of the founders of L'Arche] and L'Arche in magazines, books, and then on Speaking of Faith on NPR. I read return of the prodigal last year in Michigan, and I really appreciated Nouwen's observations and call to a deeper life of relationship with one another, and with God. But first step is in facing the dark places within ourselves, which seems to be where the potential light of our inner most hearts seem to be.
peace to you stranger. thanks for your thoughtful words and for reading my words with such careful attention and presence.

es