I love people!
I love the space and place an authentic voice applies to everything experienced, imagined and yet to be imagined. This blog is all about loving people. Loving the stories that we all bring to the table. Loving truth that marries the two together. I’m not after perfection but the authentic experience of humanity… warts, farts and all.
So come, let’s visit a while. Come into my kitchen. Let’s sit at the dining table and talk for a short or long minute. Please know that whatever time you have to share is precious to me.
See, I love how we are all not perfect. Yet, our life journey reflects our desire to discover and express the fullest potential of who we were created to be. Our beauty, our joys, our struggles, our pain, our triumphs, our failures and so much more, cumulatively define the human condition.
This is what we each bring to the table
A life made up of so many different stories.
The challenge is in finding that safe place to voice all these life stories. For the storyteller, the challenge is in the strength to share regardless of the outcome. On the other end, the challenge to we the recipients is the perceived and sometimes real effort and strength that it takes to be a whole-hearted listener
This is in the face of all the energy it takes to exist in this world today.
It seems like we are in constant overdrive motion, leaving very little of ourselves to be able to fully and authentically partake in much of anything else at the heart level. It’s as though we are fighting against ourselves, our ability to be able to sit still and listen and hear, really hear each other… not for the sake of sounding intelligent or by using catchy phrases, but by experiencing the moment, you know, the “Can I just share how life just happened” moments.
Even here, as I sip on my water, sitting across from you, taking that deep breath of vulnerability to share truth.
See, I too am guilty in falling victim to that effort thing.
You know, how it sometimes seems to take so much effort just to try and share oneself for a precious 5-10 minutes outside the plans of the day with no hidden agenda.
Sure, I don’t have a posse of kids holed up somewhere working on my first or last nerve. And yes, I’ve had days where I’m so busy where I thought the cat got my tongue, and teeth, and lips, vocal cords and my body too… you name it, it went!
I’ve had days where I’m so spent by the end of my work day with nothing left over even for me. So saying it’s a given to having the energy to be open to authentically connect with someone on any given day and situation…you’re pushing it.
It is here in such situations that hidden agendas can make themselves king. They can be so insidious one barely realizes how much we have them underscoring our interactions. You know like, “If I do for you, then you have to do for me,” or “If I say this, then, they may say this or she or he will go down this path if I do this specific thing…” Who knew being human was so hard!
This is not and cannot be the authentic me… or you.
So my life share story today is how of late, I’ve been finding those normal but out of the norm moments to take a pause break and experience life with someone else.
Not something contrived
“ …being intentional in sharing a minute, a moment of my time.”
But just being intentional in sharing a minute, a moment of my time. The pushing past of me, my plans, which mind you, are important, to my purposing to stop myself and experience life’s layers through the eyes and with someone else, that I would have otherwise missed if I maintained my status quo.
For real.
I mean, I already love people and love stories. But this month, I found myself on a go slow to deliberately get to know the extra beat in the story of the stranger and friend next to me.
No agenda.
Now, I don’t know if it was because I had purposed my heart to be more intentional than I tend to believe I am or not. But let me just tell you, because of this, I experienced connections these past 2 weeks that I would not have otherwise, if I was focused on me myself and I instead of the person right in front of my nose.
The irony of it all is that one of these moments happened as I was writing this specific blog. Literally as I was writing about stopping my time, my agenda…
The doorbell rang
When I went to answer the door and see who it was, in the midst of my interrupted creative space, a stranger – with a purpose was staring back at me. Interestingly, it was something that I initially was interested pursuing later on (so yes, originally, I had an agenda). However, I paused my writing and for the next 1.5 to 2 hours, we talked about more than just the purpose that person was in my space for.
We connected.
For that one moment in time, we willingly shared of ourselves some of our life story, our successes, our challenges. And though we did not once and for all, solve the problem of space trash orbiting our earth, or come up with the most ingenious design for the worlds best filtration sewer system, we added invaluable deposits in our human experience, enriching our lives beyond the tangible experience.
You know, reviving the spirit and fuel for the soul.
Where someone just by being present, loving on you by being intentional in hearing the seemingly mundane and complex aspects of your life, ends up bolstering you for the next however long portion of your life that’s needed.
I believe we sometimes underestimate the power of the authentic human experience. Or perhaps this is a lost life-form… taking a pause brake from the day’s plan. Yes, I did loose perceived precious time that was earmarked for a specific task – writing this blog.
However, what I gained was priceless.
Who knew we were going to connect? Not I! But I want to believe because of the willingness to press pause on my agenda, I was greatly enriched by sharing a moment in the life of the individual I encountered.
This happened with two close friends and a would-be stranger. I shared me and loved on these my people in the real, in that they matter and their life stories matter right there. In that very moment and not on a text or some other way much later on. They in turn unlocked the door to their hearts, for connection. Valuing them in that moment as they let me into their space, their place in life in that moment.
