porch ponderings

I spent a few hours yesterday on porches and in living rooms in the Walnut neighborhood. I'm still the "white lady who visits", named so by Dominisha, an eight year old who is the neighborhood's youngest community organizer.

Two things strike me everytime I spend time in conversation with Walnut neighbors. First, I am so appreciative of the willingness they show to welcome me in and engage in unhurried conversation. Miss Vicki, the eldest and longest living resident in the neighborhood, always has a smile and a story for me, and yesterday she insisted I share an ice cream sandwich with her on her porch. She tells me stories of her family and stories of the neighborhood, and I marvel every time that she would be so kind as to invite me into her life. She'd like to make me gumbo next time I stop, so she told me to give her notice. This marks me so. To share the gift of time with one another is not such a common happening anymore, and as I sit with her, I make mental notes of how powerful and transformative listening, sharing, and neighboring are.

Secondly, I am struck by how important it is for me to spend time with people who are different than myself. People who have different backgrounds and life experiences. My framework...understanding...lens....gets challenged every single time. I'm not reading books or sitting around a table with people like me trying to problem solve or give trite answers to complex problems. But issues become faces, people, God's creations, who have lives and families and stories. I almost always encounter Jesus in these settings, and those porch moments give me little insights into the life of following him.