Living until and through the end. . .

Most Beautiful

Beautiful are the youth
whose rich emotions flash and burn,
whose lithe bodies filled with energy and grace
sway in their happy dance of life;

and beautiful likewise are the mature
who have learned compassion and patience,
charity and wisdom, though they
be rarer far than beautiful youth.

But most beautiful and most rare is a gracious old age
which has drawn from life the skill to take its varied strands:
the harsh advance of age, the pang of grief,
the passing of dear friends, the loss of strength,
and with fresh insight weave them
into a rich and gracious pattern all its own.

This is the greatest skill of all,
to take the bitter with the sweet and make it beautiful,
to take the whole of life in all its moods,
its strengths and weaknesses,
and of the whole make one great and celestial harmony.

Robert Terry Weston
Source: Great Occasions (edited by Carl Seaburg)

Add your thoughts at inward/outward

Universal expressions of beauty

It is a very simple arrangement, or so it appears from the sidewalk about 8 floors below. 

Just a small planter bowl with a few carefully placed, brightly colored flowers. 

The blossoms grace one of the windows in a small, studio apartment at CityWalk@Akard, our housing development in Downtown Dallas. 

I'm not sure who occupies the apartment. 

It really doesn't matter because I "know" them well from countless previous encounters.  Undoubtedly a low-income person lives up there.  Possibly even a person who last lived on our streets is the current resident. 

The flowers are universal in my experience.  

Everyone loves beauty, even those too stressed to allow for it or to even recognize its presence in life at present. 

But this love, this connection, this longing attention resides in every heart and soul. 

We seem "hard-wired" for beauty. 

I observe this everywhere, even among neighbors who have no home to call their own. 

Housing allows for the necessary psychic space to "stage" or present the beauty that one appreciates or has found--thus the flowers nestled in a meagre bowl. 

To ignore the hunger for beauty that "the poor" possess is to make a fundamental and deadly error if one's intention has anything to do with connecting or engaging in community. 

The flowers up there remind me of the beauty all around. 

Beauty can't be denied or squelched, at least not for long. 

Beauty gives me hope.

Wild urban beauty!

Molly's blessing. . .

People often question, sometimes lecture, and express concern that the work we do at CitySquare is "not really about faith."  I suppose people think that because we make none of our services, activities or initiatives dependent upon our neighbors being involved in overtly religious activities.  Like all of our various activities, everything here is based on the complete freedom of our neighbors to choose what they desire to take advantage of. 

What people with these concerns don't understand is that faith lives on the streets and in the poorest ghettos in the inner city. . .and I do mean "lives." 

A few weeks ago, a very frail and troubled woman handed me a piece of paper that I've been carrying in my pocket ever since she passed it my way.  We'll call her "Molly" here. 

Molly deals with severe bi-polar disorder, and possibly schizophrenia.  She doesn't talk about faith much, but she knows I'm a minister.  Possibly she wrote the note because of her faith, or possibly because of mine, with the note being a gift she thought I would appreciate.  Either way, I consider the act very spiritual. 

Here's what Molly wrote:

Lord Jesus, bless my friend
the spirit of joy and happiness
to all who are in your care and
help the will of God's SON who
save all our lives
forever
for only Love not hate

As I've said so often, the witness comes back more powerfully than it can be offered from here.

Valued partner: Omniplan

When we set about developing CitySquare's new Opportunity Center, we made a quality-control decision.  We wanted a first class design team.  As a result, we chose Omniplan as our architects.  The illustration below reflects the quality of their work.  The developments pictured here are located in Los Angeles area. 

For examples of the company's work closer to home drop in at NorthPark Mall and look arouind!

We believe South Dallas/Fair Park deserves beauty, utility and everything positive! 

Systems vs. Community

Working among and with low-income people over the past two decades has taught me a lot about the importance of terminology, assumptions and how we understand what it is that we are about.  I noticed early on that a very common way of managing the challenges of poverty involves systematizing responses and work product so that poverty is somehow "professionalized."  In such systems poverty can be subjected to various processes and responses to it can be bench marked against agreed upon methods, best practices and predetermined protocols. 

At the same time, and very early on, I noted the amazing impact of genuine community to transform people, environments and collective self-understandings far beyond the reach of professional approaches or standard processes. 

In looking through some old files I found this passage from Mary O'Connell's The Gift of Hospitality.  Clearly, she understands the distinction that I've noticed across the years.

In a social service system people are known by what's wrong:  by their condition or label
In a community people are known as individuals

In a system people are incomplete and need to be changed or "fixed"
In a community people are as they are, with opportunities to follow their dreams

In a system relationships are unequal; service workers do things "for" clients and don't look for any contribution in return
In a community relationships are reciprocal, give and take; and the diverse gifts of many people are recognized

In a system people are broken into parts and separated into groups
In a community people have a chance to be accepted as whole persons, and viewed as part of the whole society

In a system problems are solved by consulting authorities, policies, procedures
In a community people seek answers from their own experience and the wisdom of others

In a system there is no room to acknowledge mistakes and uncertainty; information is communicated in professional jargon that distances individuals from others
In a community people can make honest efforts and acknowledge honest mistakes and fears

In a system all problems have rational solutions
In a community there is room for confusion, and mystery, and a recognition that some things are beyond human control

Inner City Beauty

Most people don't think of inner city communities as "beautiful." Mine is, especially in the fall and spring. I captured these images from my front lawn and looking up and down and around my street.

I'm not saying it's Vermont, but fall is beautiful in East Dallas!

Happy Birthday, MOJ.