A New Conversation
by Kristin Geiser
I understand a bit more now
about how it might have felt
to be at the table that night
of breaking bread and sipping wine,
so grateful for the new conversation.
No longer about rules and regulations,
but about belonging.
The new conversation happened around the table
where the life of each disciple
was a sacred text.
Not just the ones who didn’t betray.
A conversation where everyone’s words were part of the sacred story.
So we return on Sundays
to remember
what is available to us.
Do this in remembrance of me.
Do take this with you.
This new conversation.
This beauty you have experienced —
it’s not a story to believe
or to memorize
or to tell,
but a life to live
with one another,
a new conversation to inhabit.
What if as much as it is about the bread and the wine,
it is about re-entering the conversation.
What if as much as it is about the beautiful inherited words offered,
it is about our emerging and imperfect words,
held by the fertile tensions of
belonging and becoming,
longing and allowing,
arriving and departing.
Do this in memory of me…
Do take this with you.
This gift —
this earthy and holy invitation —
to participate in a new conversation.
Kristin currently serves as the Deputy Director and a Senior Research Associate at the John W Gardner Center for Youth and their Communities in Stanford University. She has more than twenty-five years of experience working at the intersection of research and practice with a focus on advancing the creation of settings and systems that support positive and equitable youth and community development, including leadership roles at Stanford University and The National Equity Project (formerly the Bay Area Coalition of Essential Schools) and consulting roles with local foundations and nonprofit organizations. Kristin earned a PhD in Education Administration, Curriculum, Teaching, & Policy and a BA in Theater and Film from UCLA.
Dan Clendenin: dan@journeywithjesus.net
