Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Aloneness

"Aloneness is not a curse to be avoided but a grace to be embraced. Aloneness is the goodness of an inner centering that faces the pain of differentness, sculpted and understood by God. And there is no greater grace than the blessing of acceptance in the face of one's differentness and aloneness...the God who made the world with kaleidoscopic beauty affirms us at the core of who we are and says: "I know you,do not be afraid."
~Henri Nouwen~


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1 comment:

layne (herman) said...

Henri Nouwen is a loved person in our home, in seeing that he is listed in your profile as a favorite author I would like to share with you why.


Many years ago my wife and I both participated in a "Walk To Emmaus" a part of the weekend is to have family and friends send letters/notes to the person on the Walk. My wife liked the author Henri Nouwen and so I wrote him, told him what was up and asked her if he would write her. He did, and even sent a book to her.

A bit of time later a child my wife worked with (she worked with developmentally disabled children) passed away. My wife wrote Henri Nouwen about this, Henri Nouwen wrote her again.

We never met this man face to face, our contacts were limited to these two brief corespondences but it left a lasting memory.