The Empty Chair
There is something quietly powerful about an empty chair. At a kitchen table. On a front porch. Beside you at a community event. At a café. At church. In a park. An empty chair can simply mean nobody is sitting there. Or it can mean something much more beautiful: There is room for you. Today, I'd like to suggest a simple idea for transforming NDG. Whenever possible, leave room for one more. Someone Is Waiting to Be Included Every neighbourhood has people who already belong to circles. Families. Friendships. Teams. Congregations. Walking groups. Coffee groups. Parents who know one another from school. Neighbours who have lived beside each other for twenty years. That's wonderful. But every neighbourhood also contains people standing just outside those circles. The new neighbour. The widower. The newcomer to Canada. The teenager who doesn't quite fit in. The senior whose friends have gradually disappeared. The person living alone. The parent who always seems to be by themse...