I had the opportunity to attend a luncheon in support of the work at Jubilee Housing last Tuesday and to learn about their amazing work providing affordable housing and social support to people of all ages and stages in the District of Columbia.  A couple of very dear friends invited me; I had the chance to catch up with other friends while I was there, learning about an organization that walks the walk of its social justice beliefs.

The program showcased the lives and stories of some of the residents at Jubilee properties; they told the story of how a safe, stable, affordable home (something very expensive to attain in DC) had changed their lives and made it possible for them to give back to others.  And in their telling, they invited us into their experience, into their story — so that those of us in the audience lucky enough to not actually share their experience might, for a moment, walk in their shoes and understand the importance of the work of creating and supporting affordable housing.

I could not help but think about this last year and more of my life, focused on storytelling and listening in so many ways.  As I go forth on this path that as yet has no name, I am often asked just what it is that I am about.  The luncheon last Tuesday was a good example — I am about helping people tell their stories and maybe, just maybe, seeing a little bit of God in that story: our chaotic, blessed stories, made in God’s image, clothed in the struggle that is our own incarnation.

I still struggle with my elevator speech for this new life,  but I know that life when I see it in action.  So, for right now, I continue to offer another’s words to describe this path.  So, to close, I offer you this poem that says so much about this calling that swirls about me and continues to lead me down so many interesting forest paths:

It is our stories
our sacred, chaotic, blessed stories:
it is our stories
that are the stones
of God’s language
on the rocky, jagged, radiant
path of life.
It is the holy listener who helps arrange these stones
into cairns
which point the way to God’s desire for our lives
and
God’s desire for our every moment.
The cairns, if patiently balanced,
uneven though they be,
if patiently balanced,
can point the way to heaven.
Heaven, after all,
is making God-serving meaning of our stories
on this rocky, jagged, radiant path of life.

(Jennifer Hoffman, reprinted in Janet K. Ruffing’s
To Tell the Sacred Tale, 2009)