Our Neighbor
“The hardest spiritual work in the world is to love the neighbor as the self—to encounter another human being not as someone you can use, change, fix, help, save, enroll, convince, or control, but simply as someone who can spring you from the prison of yourself, if you will allow it.”—Barbara Brown Taylor in An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith (HarperOne. 2010).
Our older son once took his daughter to high school each day on his way to work, before she started driving. If they had extra time, they would stop at their favorite coffee or smoothie haunt and have a cup of coffee, hot chocolate, or smoothie together. I think what a treasure it can be to have a few minutes a day with one of your parents, and maybe even share a cup of your favorite comfort drink. They are both introverts, so they may not say much, but each offers the other a presence in this one-on-one experience, and a chance to get to know each other better.
I grew up in a small town with fantastic neighbors. Mrs. Rick, a widow with pearl-white hair, lived across the street in a house that seemed huge at the time. One of our neighbors on Second Street had to move away for physical reasons. Mrs. Rick then started walking at 9:00 every morning for seven blocks from Second Street to Ninth Street, up to Riddle’s Drug Store, to meet this neighbor for coffee. Our next-door neighbor, Paul, cut Mrs. Rick’s grass every week.
I have a friend who calls me every morning. Unfortunately, most people are too busy working to contact or talk to one person a day regularly, and realize it as a pure gift.
These are the kinds of relationships that work best to “spring” us from ourselves. We don’t have to pretend anymore. If we allow such intimacy, these people can learn who we truly are. When we are with them, we begin to let down our masks and become the person God created us to be.
Joanna https://www.joannaseibert.com/