28/02/2019
I feel blessed to have met this writer reflecting on ‘the meeting place’ in ourselves🙏
Deven is about 30 years younger than myself and we landed in a most unusual group together in a class at uni called ‘Social Justice in a World of Inequality’. Dev was an exchange student from the States. I’m sharing her musings as I believe there is such simple wisdom in what she has to say and as she navigates her vocation in Criminal and Social Justice I am inspired by her kind heart 🧡🌟
I look at everyone I meet and I just picture them carrying a back pack, and inside that is who they are, and how they got to be that person. I really don’t know much about them until I know what’s in the bag.
Now, I can see the size of the bag, if it’s torn, the color, the number of bags but I don’t know what’s inside. Someone could be carrying two bags because one belongs to someone who can’t carry their own, the bag could be empty, it could be filled with books, booze, memories from the past, weights... anything. Or it could have another bag inside that takes you awhile to discover and then you don’t know what’s inside that one.
You don’t know how heavy someone’s bag is, why they’re carrying it, how long they have been, or how much longer they want to hold onto the bag for.
I just want to be a safe place for anyone to put it down when and if they want. Even if someone doesn’t want to show you what’s inside, just be a spot where they can put it down.
I’m lucky to have so many places to put mine so that it doesn’t feel as heavy but I know that’s not always the case. Just an interesting concept I’ve been running through my mind lately 💭🤯