Recently, a
fellow blogger, Ariffa, nominated me for The Versatile
Blogger award. It was not like it was one of those big deal awards. It was one
of those ways of getting to know other bloggers and to allow other bloggers to
get to know you. It was a simple process. You had to list fifteen bloggers that
you follow with links to their websites (that was the easier part for me). Then
you had to list seven things about you that were interesting. This is where I found
myself being stuck. I realized as I stared at this blank screen that I did not
think I, or my life, was interesting. The two things I wrote down were not
things that I found interesting or thought other people would find interesting,
but maybe different or unique. That was that I had six parents (birth, foster,
and adoptive) and that I used to say I was part Vulcan as my left ear has a
slight point to it. Neither of which seems to fit the definition of
interesting, or so I thought. According to the dictionary interesting means, “arousing curiosity or interest; holding or catching
the attention.” The only thing I could think of is that sometimes I am able to
arouse the curiosity and interest of my students through the material I share
with them in the classroom.
Unable to come up with a list of seven things that were interesting about me, I turned to the experts in my life – my friends on and off Facebook (they are the easiest people to get quick answers from. what I found interesting was what they found interesting about me. for example, my friend Mary Thomas Wilkins told me my cooking skills were interesting. I should have, and may still ask her what she meant by that. Perhaps it was how I am able to take an everyday thing like food and transform it into a spiritual lesson in my blog The Zenful Kitchen. She also thought my life story, my wife Zoe, and the way I minister to people interesting.
It was this whole notion of how I do ministry that seemed to be the one thing most people found interesting about me. As I looked across people’s comments there was several common themes which began to emerge. So here is what I learned about myself from my friends and what I would now say are seven things about me that make me interesting.
- I have the gift of being able to gather and bring people together from around the world developing intentional communities.
- I practice the spiritual values that I teach: compassion, humility, justice, courage, respect, humanity, empowerment, integrity, holism, concern for the broader good, responsibility, and commitment to excellence.
- I am committed to continuing to grow and evolve in my own journey.
- I am committed to learning, but also to sharing what I know with others to help them in their journey.
- I understand the sacred art of listening and try to offer that gift to others.
- I have eyes that express my love for humanity in ways I was not aware of.
- I am who I am, who I was created to be, and who I am becoming with each step of my own journey.
So now as I sit here and look at this and take it all in, I am beginning to see that I am far more interesting then I ever thought I was.