"Learning
to listen with the heart moves us
from the role of observers
and
enables us to become participants with the
Creator
in a
world full of grace and possibility."
(Source: ‘Heart Whispers’ / Elizabeth
Canham)
I have missed my Tuesday lunches at the local cafeteria … those
lunches where I curl up in a booth and read as I eat. The holidays seemed to
have disrupted my schedule, before and after Christmas, but now I’m back into a
routine.
It didn’t take long for me to switch from reading to pretending to
read yesterday. A daughter and her
elderly father were eating in a booth nearby.
I now know of her husband’s dreams for his business. “He doesn’t want a bigger place, Daddy, he
just wants new buildings like he has now.
But he knows that will never happen so we’ll just be happy with what we
have.” After a few minutes, I knew that
these cold and rainy days that we are experiencing were bringing a little bit of
depression to her and causing her daddy’s bones ache. I overheard the woman lamenting over a brother
she never sees and I listened as her daddy told of his best friend suffering
with kidney stones. I knew that the daddy
couldn’t hear well for there was repeating of words. She asked if he felt well enough to see the
new grandbaby and he said, “No, not today.”
“Maybe Sunday after church,” she said hopefully. “Maybe … maybe,” he softly replied.
Yesterday at lunch, I learned this … that in her rainy-day blues and
his aching bones … in her sadness for her husband’s lost dreams and in the
longing for a brother who had distanced himself for some reason … with the
daddy’s concern for his friend in pain and her concern for her daddy’s health …
with a newborn waiting to be held by her granddaddy and a granddaddy wanting to
hold her … with the often misunderstanding of words because of the softness of a
daughter’s voice and the difficulty of her daddy’s hearing, STILL when the
server asked how they were doing, they both said, “Fine, we are just fine”
without a second thought.
I walked away from my lunch yesterday hoping for the sun to shine
soon, not necessarily for me, but for her.
I hoped for bones to ache less and a kidney stone to pass. I hoped for the day when a granddaddy feels
well enough to hold a newborn granddaughter and the moment when the little one
smiles in her sleep while nestled safely in the arms of her granddaddy. I hoped for far-off dreams to be
realized. Most of all, I walked away
praying for a time when the words “Fine, we are just fine” means more than words
said to a server.
Yes, learning to listen with the heart moves us from
the role of observers and enables us to become participants with the Creator in
a world full of grace and possibility.
