I am listening to a new CD by Peter Nelson, aka August Anchor, formerly of Kilmer. It’s a preview disc as the CD won’t be out for a few months. It is sooooo good! I haven’t been as excited about a disc since Sigur Ros’ (white album). ptr flew in to town over the weekend we had some time to hang out just a bit. Seeing him got me thinking about some of the many people that have contributed to the shaping of my person over the last few years.
What a gift to have rich characters in our lives. People who make us laugh and people make us mad. People who own their stories and people who invite us to voice ours. Those who embody the dance, those who live questioning, those who pursue with deep longing, and those who connect and share their connections. People who create and see. People dare to speak their dreams, and people who help spoken dreams become. People who love as best as they can and people respond to our attempts at the same.
“Ubuntu” is an Africa word which describes the relational concept of: “I am because we are, and since we are, therefore I am.” Similarly, The Sekai Trust promotes the notion: “I am a part of everything, therefore I am.” This has some similarities to the Christian understanding of the “Great Cloud of Witnesses,” the “saints” and some links to what it means for humanity to be part of God’s creation. We are more than the sum of our relationships but never less.
How can we celebrate the relationship that have shaped us that we know nothing about?
Cheers to you, O known and unknown person, people and relationships; you who have contributed to my joy and to my sorrow; you who have helped make me and you whom I am helping make. May I live into this relay race we call life and faithfully pass on the baton that leads to a resurrected, full life from death.
Peace, dwight
