Not much to say today, but something to share, again from the writing of Henri Nouwen:
"How often is the intimate encounter of two persons an expression of their total freedom? Many people are driven into each other's arms in fear and trembling. They embrace each other in despair and loneliness. They cling to each other to prevent worse things from happening. Their sleep together is only an expression of their desire to escape the threatening world, to forget their deep frustration, to ease for a minute the unbearable tension of a demanding society, to experience some warmth, protection and safety. Their privacy does not create a place where they both can grow in freedom and share their mutual discoveries, but a fragile shelter in a stormy world." (from Intimacy)
I confess the rarity in my own life of "intimate encounters" that were an expression of mutual "total freedom." Too often I have preferred "a fragile shelter" to what it seemed was no shelter at all.
So, Fr. Nouwen, how do two persons encounter each other intimately in "total freedom"? If there is this Possibility, then there must also be this Promise: that such relationships can happen for any of us... Even me.
1 comment:
Yes, I too have sought out the "fragile shelter" to protect me from the storms of life only to discover it was no shelter at all.
Fr Nouwen also writes in Intimacy that "we probably have wondered in our many lonesome moments if there is one corner in this competitive, demanding world where it is safe to be relaxed, to expose ourselves to someone else and to give unconditionally. It might be very small and hidden. But if this corner exists, it calls for a search through the complexities of our human relationships in order to find it."
If this Possibility exists, then it is worth the search to find it; for I think it will be from this corner that "they both can grow in (total) freedom."
I guess the next question is how to explore the "complexities of our human relationships in order to find it."
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