I guess lately I am just really into reading books by people named Barbara?
"Reverence for creation comes fairly easily for most people. Reverence for other people presents more of a challenge, especially if those people’s lives happen to impinge upon your own. … I know that I have an easier time loving humankind than I do particular human beings. Particular human beings hug my bumper in rush-hour traffic and shoot birds at me when I tap my brakes. Particular human beings drop my carefully selected portabella mushrooms into the bottom of my grocery bag and toss cans of beans on top of them. They talk on their cell phones while I am having a nice quiet lunch at Blimpie’s; they talk on their cell phones while I am waiting to pay them for my gas; they talk on their cell phones while I am trying to step past them on the sidewalk. Particular human beings rarely do things the way I think I should do them, and when they prevent me from doing what I think I should be doing, then I can run short on reverence for them. One remedy for my condition is to pay attention to them when I can, even when they are in my way. Just for a moment, I look for the human being instead of the obstacle. … I pay attention…and the fist in my chest lets go."
"Reverence for creation comes fairly easily for most people. Reverence for other people presents more of a challenge, especially if those people’s lives happen to impinge upon your own. … I know that I have an easier time loving humankind than I do particular human beings. Particular human beings hug my bumper in rush-hour traffic and shoot birds at me when I tap my brakes. Particular human beings drop my carefully selected portabella mushrooms into the bottom of my grocery bag and toss cans of beans on top of them. They talk on their cell phones while I am having a nice quiet lunch at Blimpie’s; they talk on their cell phones while I am waiting to pay them for my gas; they talk on their cell phones while I am trying to step past them on the sidewalk. Particular human beings rarely do things the way I think I should do them, and when they prevent me from doing what I think I should be doing, then I can run short on reverence for them. One remedy for my condition is to pay attention to them when I can, even when they are in my way. Just for a moment, I look for the human being instead of the obstacle. … I pay attention…and the fist in my chest lets go."
"While I am sitting here thinking I am
at the center of this subway scene and they are on the edges, [the other people on the subway] are sitting at
the center of their own scenes with me on their edges. Every one of them is
dealing with something, the same way I am."
"...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. All you have to do is recognize another you
“out there” – your other self in the world – for whom you may care as
instinctively as you care for yourself. To become that person, even for a
moment, is to understand what it means to die to yourself. This can be as
frightening as it is liberating. It may be the only real spiritual discipline
there is."
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