
I have been struck over the past year over the power of an invitation. Invitations can come in many different forms and does not have to be to some type of formal event, which we often correlate with an invitation such as to my niece’s First Communion gathering. It can be and is often more powerful if it is to something more simple, something more everyday, for example, “Would you want to go check out what’s going on at the YMCA this Thursday?”
Invitations have the potential to be significant and life changing because they invite us to step out of our comfort zone, ordinary routine, same old, same old and be somewhere different with potentially new people. And it’s not so much that the people or the place are really “new,” but that the conversation will be new.
In conversations with people who have labels of disability I have been struck by how powerful invitations can be. I know from years of being in a service system that there are seldom invitations to anything new and different and many of the systems have a tendency to be focused on needs, deficits, segregation and the past. Invitations can be the ticket to move past this.
I offered an invitation to my friend , “Do you want to go check out what’s going on down the street at your community center?” Sure! Once at the community center possibilities exist in the conversations that occur. Robin, the Director, was invited to talk with us about what goes on there. This conversation was with citizens, other people in the neighborhood. This conversation was about what’s going at the community center, and what of that interestsBrian.
Possibilities exist in that conversation!
These possibilities exist for Linda and for Robin. Linda has found a hospitable place where she can participate and give her gifts of caring and humor and be a friend to others in her community. Robin’s community center now has the possibility of becoming stronger because another member of our community is included and participating and giving her gifts. New possibilities exist for everyone now who comes to this center because they now have the opportunity to meet Linda and enjoy her humor, caring, and friendship. And it all started with a simple invitation.
What’s the invitation you can make today?