Around the House: Jigsaw puzzles
Reading and Thinking: about the seed of an interrupting hope
I began reading Gregory C. Ellison's 'Cut Dead but Still Alive' while we were on vacation in Arizona. There is so much value between its covers and I am working through it slowly. (Fortunately, with closures, this interlibrary loan was automatically renewed for me.) I have read and read again the following passage titled "The Invitation of Interruption" :
In Reaching Out, Henri Nouwen speaks of interruptions as gifts for caregivers who are preoccupied with change and harried by ever-growing demands. Nouwen begins his reflection on this subject by recounting a moment during his professorship at the University of Notre Dame, when he received some untimely wisdom from a senior colleague. While strolling across campus, the older professor shared, "you know, my whole life I have been complaining that my work was constantly interrupted, until I discovered that my interruptions were my work." From the wise professor's vantage point, interruptions are small opportunities to break from the mundane and create new possibilities. Nouwen adds that unexpected interruptions might even be considered as invitations to contest "old-fashioned and outmoded styles of living" and as ways to explore uncharted areas of experience.
In unforeseen circumstances, interruptions invite caregivers into spaces of chaos and turmoil to interrupt cycles of hopelessness in others. However, the caregiver must be ready to accept the unexpected invitation when it comes. When prepared to receive the gift of an interruption, caregivers "can look for hope in the middle of crying cities, burning hospitals, and desperate parents." In the words of Nouwen, caregivers "can cast off the temptation of despair and speak about the fertile tree while witnessing the dying seed. Or, in the case of caregivers working with the cut dead in apocalyptic dead zones, one can speak about the dying tree of life releasing the fertile seed of an interrupting hope. (p. 81)
I have similarly read and reread this article, especially the last three paragraphs, shared by a friend.
And always a return to my favorite poem for Eastertide, which Ruth loving transcribed and illustrated for me last fall.
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Celebrating
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