Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Henri and I


Yesterday, I walked out of work and went down to the Potter’s House to get a book that I wanted to share with a friend. (It is always dangerous for me to walk into bookstores.) I got the book I was looking for… and two others.

One of them was “Clowning in Rome” by Henri Nouwen. I had heard about years ago but I had never read and it seemed so fitting to my current state of internal restlessness that I bought it. I went out from the bookstore down to Tryst (a very hip spot in Adam’s Morgan, DC) and spent several hours reading and writing. I started reading “Clowning in Rome” and felt like Nouwen (as usual) knew me and was speaking directly to my current circumstances. This has happened before.

I remember when I worked all summer in the mountains of Colorado and was feeling broken and lonely. I went down to Denver one weekend and walked into a bookstore where I saw the book “The Wounded Healer” and bought it without knowing what it was about. It was exactly what I needed to hear at that moment. Needless to say, I don’t know if everyone gets Nouwen the way I do, but I love how I feel understood by him.

3 comments:

Antonia said...

nouwen "gets" me too :)

Mariqui Atiaga González said...

A mí me pasó lo mismo con un libro de Nouwen... Era justamente lo que necesitaba y me sentí comprendida por él. Todavía quiero leer "The wounded healer". Gracias por compartir esto!

Emmy Ruth said...

You're definitely not the only one . . . I really appreciate Nouwen and have long wanted to read Clowning in Rome. Glad it blessed you :)

live the questions now... R.M. Rilke