The Depth of Ordinary - November 7, 2013

In my role as a Hospice companion I have the great privilege of coming to know people at a time of life when they are often willing to share deeply and let one into their lives. As I sat with a dear, elderly man, in a small, ordinary apartment, he showed me photo albums that could have been my family's - the clothing styles, poses, type of photos looked so familiar. He talked of his life and teared up several times over deep losses. As I left our visit, I was suffused with a depth of sadness that is not common for me and I realized that he had invited me into his world in a way that his sadness reached to my core. Rather than wanting to shake it off or chase it away, I savored the depth of connection that occurred in the most seemingly ordinary circumstance of quiet grey afternoon in plain apartment in a small city on this little planet.