after greenbelt...

from today's writer's almanac...

"Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them to become what they are capable of being."

- Goethe

::

oh how i need that lesson... not only do i fail to treat people as if they were being what they ought to be, i fail to treat them as they are, opting instead for treating them like i perceive them to be... and which all to often sells them short on their humanity and complexity... i so desperately want to run from all that seems fake, false, shallow, & plastic wrapped for a demographic rather than our humanity... to run toward that which is solid, real... authentic... substantive... but the path that leads from cynicism toward compassion can seems narrow some days, narrower than i can tread... most days it leaves me in need of forgiveness upon forgiveness...

i have 3 weeks before i head to the US for just shy of 3 months... i wonder what lessons it will bring... which will be hard won... which will come in the form of an easier grace...?

LB