Experimenting with Infused Water on our Porch

Questions that we bat around on the front porch: What is ours to do in making the world a better place? How do we offer a safe place and invite people into conversations? Are we telling our stories and listening to others as they also have stories to tell? What if the other person's story makes us want to run away and hide? What kind of person would I need to be in order to make sitting with people and deeply listening to them possible? Is it possible and desirable to become such a person?

Heather has been my neighbor next door for a while now. We do not really hang out on the porch much....until recently. She is a generous and gracious person and noticing that I got super excited about infusing water earlier this summer offered her old mason jar to me for my new hobby. As we were talking one day, it suddenly emerged this idea of offering infused water for our community.

Every day, I slice stuff and put it along with ice and water in the jug and set it out on the front porch. Just in the last few weeks, there has been a lot of good conversation and stories around the water on the porch. I decided to add a conversation starter/trivia/scripture/practice for the day there in case people wanted another kind of infusion along with the water.

Here is a sample: (starting with the concept of hospitality for obvious reasons) Orange-Pineapple - conversation starter: recall and share a story of a time when someone showed you extraordinary hospitality. Cantaloupe and cucumber - exercise: today listen twice as much as you speak. Reflect on this exercise. Was it easy or hard? Did you learn anything about yourself? Share these insights with someone and notice if they listen.