Generous Expectations

During NCS’s all-school Cathedral service on Jan. 30, 2015, Head of School Kathleen O’Neill Jamieson delivered a homily that urged her listeners to “focus on nurturing generous and forgiving relationships and expectations of others.”

“We do live in a community of high expectations and standards, so we need to be mindful that those are aspirational and require that we allow room for us to try and to fail and to try again—with the promise of incremental progress,” she said. “We can help each other and our families—whether it’s a snow storm or a rough patch or a tough day—by accepting the imperfect nature of human beings and meeting people where they are, leaving aside our vision of the favorite sister, the perfect mother, the best friend, the dream spouse, or the ideal neighbor. Once we forego such judgment against the ideal, we can take on the truest role of sister, daughter, friend, mate, colleague, neighbor—that of loving the unique individual before us.”

You can read the full text of Mrs. Jamieson’s remarks here.
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    • NCS Head of School Kathleen O'Neill Jamieson.