This afternoon, I was approached by a young man from Bulgaria, while I was sitting and waiting for the bus. He started to talk to me in broken Swedish, with a little help of English. He asked me what the word for "addicted" was in Swedish, and if I believed in God. I answered, and said that I do. He thereupon continued to talk about faith and how it says in the Bible that we should share. Yet, he felt like so many are selfish and don't.
Here, we had a pause, and a space for me to respond emerged. Was I going to ignore him, the Swedish way? Or should I engage in a conversation about faith, like an American? I did the latter. And pointed out that we all have our own free will to decide whom we want to share with.
I'm not sure, if he received what he needed, but perhaps the most important thing for him was that he was allowed to share, with someone. How easy it is, to just listen, accept and validate another person, isn't it, Sweden?
Aloha!