Life-Giving Relationships: not perfection
What especially touched you recently in your relationship with a coworker?
Jim Manney
red face chest rising tongue on fire
he burst in my office exclaiming, “It’s dire!”
then reeling tyrannical litany
delivers citations including me
no one and no thing is enough
to advance his agenda avoid his rebuff
with all of my grit and a fair bit of grace
I wrestle the urge to turn about face
instead of pretending I’ve something to do
remain in relationship plumb for what’s true
swallowing steam venting his chest
I reach for the jewel insist he’s the best
creating checklists and courses of action
driving completion resisting distraction
ever so slowly his pupils grow wide
finally sits down decides to confide
“I am afraid I will not achieve
the desired outcome and you won’t believe
I have accomplished all that I can
to satisfy our strategic plan”
then taking his sweaty palm in my own
I praise him for being the sure cornerstone
an unpolished gem hid in the steam
of feigning perfection’s perilous dream
Poem by Debra Asis 2024
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Jim Manney’s question is found in today’s selection in An Ignatian Book of Days by Jim Manney, a series of daily reflections from the Spiritual Wisdom of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Throughout the book we hear the voices of St. Ignatius as well as many great thinkers and writers, long gone and present day, each uniquely revealing the way of finding God in all things. And that is my intention; to find God/Divine Presence/Ultimate Reality in whatever presents itself to me each day in 2024.
Each day I read, reflect and write on the selection, hoping to articulate the ways in which I come to know God/Divine Presence/Ultimate Reality via personal experience, impelled by the leading of my inner life.
INVITATION
Would you like to join me? The book is accessible on Amazon. Let me know in the comments to this post and sign up to get an email whenever I post. I would love to read your reflections too, public or private messages welcome!
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https://www.debraasis.org
All words are generated by grace and the grit of a real human being,
Debra Asis
