I have been away from the computer the last couple of days participating in several events with an author I have mentioned a few times in this space. J. Philip Newell, Celtic theologian, poet, and teacher has been in the Twin Cities and I have been privileged to hear him and experience the gift of his words. His ability to invite people into an ancient expression of the Christian faith in new ways, with new insight, has been an special experience.

While what I have heard has been powerful, I think what has been more profound has been the overwhelming experience of the presence of kindness. This kindness has exuded not only from Philip but from all those who are present. It has been like taking a shower in hospitality, bathing in a pool of people offering their best selves. The kindness extends to the ways in which people look at one another, the ways in which they listen in deep ways. It has been nothing short of remarkable and I have been healed by it.

Even as I write this, I do so with a certain sense of sadness. Why is this experience so different? Why are the experiences we have in groups of people so often tinged with rudeness, negativity, gossip? Even in the church, sometimes especially in the church, people express themselves in judgmental and harsh ways over the simplest of things. Why is this?

So to be bathed in the goodness of these days seems a luxury. And yet it also seems simply 'the way it is supposed to be', a glimpse of the kindom of God. Perhaps kindness has been contagious over these days and those of us who have been in attendance will go back into our daily lives with the edges of what divides us softened somehow. We will see those who want to nip at the heels of others with more compassionate eyes and those doing the nipping will be transformed in some way. We will treat ourselves more generously recognizing God's image in our own mirror. This is my prayer. It is a prayer that is held in the utmost gratitude for being in the presence of kindness, for being healed.

"We stumble on the journey, O God. We lose heart along the way. We forget your promises and blame one another. Refresh us with the springs of your spirit in our souls and open our senses to your guiding presence that we may be part of the world's healing this day, that we may be part of the world's healing." ~J. Philip Newell, Celtic Treasure