The Fence Line

Letters 1 Minute

Letter 4479

I have a neighbor.

Watching him repair a wall, I realized I did not know if his prior day had been heavy or light. We have occupied these lands side by side for years and my world has mostly been within my own fence line.

There is infinite sunshine; your kingdom’s arithmetic does not require decrease for another’s growth. Let me look less upon my own doings and take interest in my neighbor, and my neighbor’s neighbor.

❖

Let me wash others’ feet, one by one.

Consider:

Can I look up from my own occupations today?

Reading:

❖ “What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult to each other?” — George Eliot, Middlemarch

❖ “Community cannot feed for long on itself; it can only flourish where always the boundaries are giving way to the coming of others from beyond them — unknown and undiscovered brothers.” — Howard Thurman, The Search for Common Ground

❖ “Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.” — Philippians 2:4 (KJV)

Thank you for for reading. If this helped you today, please consider sharing it.

~B.R.

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