This morning I read something that resonated deeply within me as I resettle into my adopted culture and adjust to being away from my home culture. Henri Nouwen is so often able to put words to thoughts I hadn't known that I'd thought, and this was no exception. This is what struck me so much:
"Being back in France makes me think much about countries and cultures. During the past few months I have been in Holland, Germany, Canada, the United States, and England, and in all these countries I have had intense contact with people and their ways of living, praying, and playing. There is great temptation to want to know which culture is best and where I am most happy and at home. But this way of thinking leads to endless frustrations because the Dutch, Germans, the French, the Americans, and the Canadians are all people who have unique ways of feeling, thinking, and behaving, none of which totally fits my needs, but all of which have gifts for me... I am increasingly aware of how important it is to enjoy what is given and to fully live where one is...
Do we really need to belong to one country or one culture? In our world, where distances are becoming less each day, it seems important to become less and less dependent on one place, one language, one culture, or one style of life, but to experience oneself as a member of the human family, belonging to God and free to be wherever we are called to be. I even wonder if the ability to be in so many places so quickly and so often is not an invitation to grow deeper in the spirit and let our identity be more rooted in God and less in the place in which we happen to be." (emphasis mine)
These words bring me so much comfort as I feel the pulls of the US, Thailand, and Argentina. I relate to different aspects of each culture and yet none of them fits me completely. I feel so blessed to be able to live in and experience different cultures, different faces of God really, and to take away what I can from each one.
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