Clock time is outer time, time that has a hard, merciless objectivity to it…clock time always makes us depart. p.95
Patience is the discipline of compassion because through patience we live in the fullness of time and invite others to share in it…When we live by the clock we have no time for each other…[we] perceive human suffering as a disturbing interruption of our plans; we are constantly preoccupied with our free evening, free weekend, or free month and lose the capacity to enjoy the people we live and work with day in and day out. P.99
I have learned to live outside of clock time (for better or worse as an employee) thanks to the pace of life in the Dominican. People are not in a rush and know how to value a visitor and take time to invest in a person. I love how people linger. The art of conversation is one practiced and perfected the DR as you lament over the lack of sunny days and mounting laundry, share about family and stun with your knowledge and appreciation of Dominican words, food and music. No one never has enough time for someone else, people come first and that is refreshing.
And as I start my transition away from this green island – I begin to think of souvenirs that I can start taking back – as a memory of my time here. I hope that an attitude of peace, coge lo suave and patience radiate from my life. That I may mimic my fellow Dominicans as you receive their full, undisturbed attention. That I may continue, even in a culture obsessed with clock time, to live outside of it – to live deep.
Patience means to enter actively into the thick of life and to fully bear the suffering within and around us. Patience is the capacity to see, hear, touch, taste, and smell as fully as possible the inner and outer events of our lives. It is to enter our lives with open eyes, ears, and hands so that we really know what is happening. Pg.91
[Excerpts taken from "Compassion" by Henri Nouwen - READ IT!]
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