Showing Up and Slowing Down

This past year I realized how deep within the Christian bubble I have become. I was going to Columbia Bible College and I was involved and South Abbotsford. Both my family and my wife's family are Christians. I make friends slowly and cautiously, so the list of people I know that are not Christians is short and of that list the number that I have regular contact with is even shorter. This summer I began working part time the very heart of Christian sub culture - the institution of church. But I also started driving an Ice Cream truck. Driving the Ice Cream truck has brought me into contact with a lot more people. And while I have not started giving away Soul Cravings books I have been learning to love people. (Not because they buy ice cream...)

A few years ago I'm not sure I would have been able to say that I like people, let alone have deep compassion and love for them. I saw mostly negative things, both in Christians and non Christians - selfishness, ignorance, greed, violence, pride, arrogance. I was cynical about the church and cynical about the world - I was cynical about people. Somewhere in the past few years I have felt more deeply my own loneliness and longing for connection, as well as encountered it in others. Somewhere in the past few years I have become fascinated by the unique, complexities, and dynamics of people. We are all different and changing, and yet we are all the same.

So much of life is just showing up and being there - sticking things out. I try and be a person who shows up. I think in the end showing up is way more important than saying the right thing. So I'm thinking and praying about how I am going to intentionally show up in the world. Am I going to join a gym, a sport, lessons? go regularly to a coffee shop? to the library? Can I slow down my book browsing in order to see people?

I think the question "Can I slow down?" is a good one. Can I slow down for people? Can I slow down for people to buy ice cream? Can I slow down for people who won't buy ice cream? Can I slow down what I'm doing and how important it is to me to see other people? Can I be there with them? Or am I just there for me? And simultaneously also calculating all of the other bazillion things I need/want to do? Do I end up barely being there at all?

Questions:
Where do you show up?
Also I'm interested in ideas for where I could "show up"...