lilsparrow
Posts: 397
Joined: 9/15/2008
From: New York State USA
Status: offline
|
Dear Jude . . .
Thank you for your kind and so thoughtful response to my response. I too, wrote mine in Word, and then cut and pasted it. I hadn't had the trouble you did, but was afraid something like that might happen, and it took me awhile to think through such a long post. Now I know to continue to do this if I expect my post to be long.
“Giving and receiving are the same.” If we don’t graciously receive what someone gives us, even if it isn’t the gift we wanted, then we deprive the giver of the ‘gift’ of giving.
(Your quote above)
I think you are SO right about giving and receiving being the same thing. You have a very wise friend. I do share my suffering when it seems appropriate, and am very aware that my past suffering has given me the gift of compassion (my father was a minister and counciled people in his study on his own time. One day a woman came in and sat crying in her seat across the desk from my father. Finally she said, "Oh pastor, I'm sorry I came--you just wouldn't understand what I'm going through." He was aware that there was some trouble with one of her teenage children. He came around the desk and gently touched her on the shoulder and said. "I think I might be able to understand. You see, I've been suffering a sense of failure and disgrace because my own teenage son has been in trouble with police and has been sent to reform school. I have blamed myself and questioned God myself." The woman was then able to pour out her heart and share her own story. My father's suffering helped her to relieve herself of hers. I might add, that at this time my father was one of three ministers in a big church...the other ministers all wondered what he was doing, with all these strangers coming into his study, some of them street people. When they discovered what he was about, they rallied, and now there is a counciling resource center at the church! My father died a few years ago and I still miss him very much). It's just that by remembering that I am not my suffering . . . I am more than my suffering, I may be able to help someone else see that too. It doesn't necessarily lessen it for another person, but it can sometimes help to realize this.
You have helped me to remember the most important thing, which is that giving and receiving are truly the same thing. Thank you Jude. I think that you must be a blessing to those who know you.
And like both of you, Jude and Edda, I tend to not tell others when I am not well. I must say though, that I did unload (with a sense of humor as it's now all over) about the awful, awful 36 hours preceeding a colonoscopy I just had...I might not have been so humourous about it, if the outcome had been as bad as I feared. I would have been better prepared if someone had shared this with me!
I can tell Lynn, from your post that you loved your father very much, whether he was your biological father or not, and to think of him and continue to honour him on his birthday is a gift to both you and your mother, who loved him too. I mentioned earlier that my father died a few years ago, and my sister, about 30 years ago. I know it touches my mother that we still honour them on their birthdays. Sharing that grief draws us closer and especially for her I think, as she is not well, and approaches her own death, helps her approach it with more love in her heart.
Love and blessings to all of you. I feel very close to this forum and to the people I will probably never meet, who share so much of what is in your hearts.
sparrow
_____________________________
everything counts...
|
Printable Version
broken hearts... - 
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread