Recently, a friend shared with me a conversation she had with her daughter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My friend is Mexican, and her children were born in the United States. They as a family frequently visit their relatives in Mexico, and over time their children have been able to perceive some of the differences that each country has.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My friend shared the following dialogue with her oldest daughter, who is around 14 years old:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2013Mom, there is nothing good about this country. Look how we are. Everything is a disaster. There is no culture, everything is pure commerce and there are no such beautiful things. Have you seen how my cousins live? They look so happy, the places they visit are so beautiful, with a lot of culture, the food tastes different there. Not that here, everything is pure junk food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Has it happened to you that you perceive a situation as totally good or totally bad?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First of all, my friend was surprised to learn what her daughter was paying attention to. Because of her age, she thought she didn’t notice much beyond her interests in video games and the occasional seasonal sport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With great attentiveness , my friend listened to everything her daughter wanted to share with her. When she saw it appropriate, she invited her to reflect on two points. One was the difficult things that happen in Mexico, and the second was the good things that also happen here in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My friend tells me that at first her daughter defended her point of view. But little by little she also began to receive what my friend told her: that in both places there are difficult things, and also beautiful ones. And it is not that one place \u201cis good\u201d and the other \u201cis bad.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In other words, she invited her daughter to be attentive not only to what is not good, but also to what is good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Scripture, the psalmist shares with us what attentive listening can lead us to, listening that does not only see \u201cthe bad.\u201d What is the psalmist referring to? To peace, mercy, truth, justice. This is what we, you and I, can find by listening or being attentive to the word of the Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are positive and negative experiences. The two sides of the experience are not mutually exclusive. Could it be that they are two sides of the same coin?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are hard and painful experiences, as there are also beautiful and joyful ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In your life today, how do you perceive your experience?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If the Spirit leads you, share with Jesus the carpenter whether you are navigating a totally good or totally bad experience. And perhaps, you will be open to hearing the other side of the experience (or the coin).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Marisol<\/p>\n\n\n\n
P.S.: We can hear about what we can discover by listening to the word of God in the readings for the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time, year\/cycle A.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
P.S.2: We can learn to be attentive to peace in the Christian Spirituality course offered by the Center for Religion and Spirituality, this coming fall of 2026, that will be offered in Spanish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Recently, a friend shared with me a conversation she had with her daughter. My friend is Mexican, and her children were born in the United States. They as a family frequently visit their relatives in Mexico, and over time their children have been able to perceive some of the differences that each country has. My […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10112,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-2-2"],"yoast_head":"\n