Under the patronage and with the blessing of His Excellency the Eparchial Bishop, Archbishop Elie Bechara Haddad, the Metanoia Listening Center, in collaboration with the Family Committee of the Melkite Greek Catholic Eparchy of Saida and Deir el Kamar, organized a couples' gathering on October 31 at the Metanoia Center. About twenty couples took part under the theme: "Between the Dream and Reality… Rewriting Our Story Together."
The gathering opened with a prayer. Mrs. Antoinette Hourani Abboud then introduced the theme, which covered three areas: (1) Expectations and Reality, (2) Appreciation and Gratitude, and (3) Postponed Dreams. The participants then split into several sharing circles, where for an hour they exchanged their experiences in response to questions on the theme.
Everyone then came back together, and Mrs. Abboud developed the three areas in detail, drawing on the everyday experiences and details of couples' lives. In the first area, she shed light on the quality of communication between spouses, outlining the different types of expectations: those that are expressed, those that are hidden, and those that exceed human capacity. In the second, she addressed the difference between a compliment (which is general and doesn't last long) and genuine appreciation (which names the action, describes its impact, and recognizes the partner's quality). The third area focused on each partner's postponed dreams and how, by supporting one another, a dream can be turned from an idea into reality.
At the end of the gathering, each person wrote a short letter to their partner centered on the three points of the theme, and the couples exchanged their letters.
The gathering concluded with the cutting of a cake to celebrate the 11th anniversary of the founding of the Metanoia Listening Center.
