Courage

 I need courage to live a culture of encounter in communion.  I tend to the safer culture of judgment.  People are not all like me.  I tend to bond with like, and keep a distance from not like.  But I have come to realize that my world had become very small and confining when I kept only to Terry-type people.  It was safe and comforting, but shallow in growth.  Timidly, I approach the "other" the Frankenstein monster.  I ask about them.  I try to listen.  Be still my heart.  Then my mind says, "Oh, you are way different than me!"  But I keep my feet planted, facing the person.  Cowardice fights with courage within me.  But I keep responding to them with interest and they keep talking.  Then a miracle.  I actually become interested.  It is the encounter in communion.  What a bigger and more interesting world it is.  So many differences, and yet not so distant from one another.