The Many Doors Opened and Closed to the Presence

Antonio Porchia, the Argentinian poet,  writes:  "A door opens to me.  I go in and am faced with a hundred closed doors".  The truth of that statement hits most of us in the face.  It is so true.   There is not one door awaiting and only one.  Learning more about a situation leads one to many other choices, possibilities and closed doors.  It usually also produces more questions than answers.  But, in the end, would it have been easier not to walk through the first door!  You bet!  If easier is what one is seeking!

The beautiful words of Henri J. M. Nouwen come back to challenge and haunt us:   "Whether we try to enter into a dislocated world, relate to a convulsive generation, or speak to a dying person, our service will not be perceived as authentic unless it comes from a heart wounded from the suffering about which we speak."

When I have gone through the pits of darkness I have faced in my life, I always immediately recognized the Presence who had been through his/her own hell and understood my pain.  It was something undeniable that I recognized;   I could not identify the points or the pilgrimage.  I just knew instantaneously that the person was Presence and was there for me in my moment of need. 

It was not what the person said!  It was what the person did not have to say!