Halfway Point Reflections

Thanks to all of you who are reading this blog and letting me know what you think and what you are learning about me and the issues I am presenting.  I know the last entry was long and detailed.  This will be shorter.

I am still in recovery mode from my cold.  Such is life.  I am grateful to have the space to do it in my own home rather than having to recover in an office environment where every sneeze and blow of the nose causes people to shudder.  It will take time.

I was able to attend church on Sunday and joyfully sing.  I  believe that singing is a very healing activity.  I was so moved by being able to join my voice with others and in swaying to the African rhythms of the BUF choir as they enchanted us with a special Alleluia chorus.   Our closing hymn was the traditional Easter alleluia set to the words of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Lo, the Earth is Risen Today.   I was able to trill with the best of them while singing the refrain.   The whole experience was just what I needed.  Earlier in the year I purchased a new hymnal and dedicated it to my daughter Kate Bronwyn Oakley, who died on May 12, 2002.  She was a singer and deeply connected to our faith tradition.  I found the hymnal and read her name and started to cry in her memory.  I ended up shedding tears off and on during the day and the next.  A wave of grief that I am grateful to experience.  Being in a faith community, whichever one calls to us, is a protective factor for coping with life for those who find harbor there.  I was moved to remember the myriad of rosaries that were left by migrants at the chapel at San Juan Bosco Albergue in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico.  I brought one home and placed it on my own altar of remembrance to remind me of the loss and hopes that I share with the women and men on the journey.

Rosaries being offered as gifts to our delegation.  For fellow travelers. San Juan Bosco Albergue.

I am at a halfway point of this sabbatical and I thought it would be good to reflect on what I have learned to date.  The list is not exhaustive but what is popping for me on this beautiful April morning in Bellingham.

1. Brown lives matter.  The United States has created an intolerable web of policies around immigration and trade that have acted as destructively as how the American Indians were treated, how the Jews were treated during WW2 by this country and other countries that would not aid their escape or even even recognize what was happening in Germany and Poland.  I believe more firmly than ever that we need to take off our blinders about what we as taxpayers are supporting at our mostly southern border - torture, discrimination of the worst sort, death by neglect and more.  It is not pretty and we need to be mindful of this situation not just in the present tense but in how survivors are coping with the losses of their families and livelihoods and separations from their dear ones.  We need to be cognizant of the perils of the journeys our policies are supporting and take responsibility for making an ethical stand.  I have been changed by my experiences on this trip.  

2.  There are many wonderful samaritans, scholars, educators, politicians, activists and survivors whose voices are speaking out and who need to be heard over and over.  I was so impressed by the work that is being done in Arizona that I am more hopeful that the generation of students who are now in high school and college will be part of the change.  

3. There are some improvements we can make in how we structure our programs.  I came away from my SW trip full of ideas about how to incorporate conversations and activities that focus on sexuality, racial/ethnic pride, safety and immigration into our program.  I am still gathering ideas and will continue to do so when I visit NYC next week.

4. I am ready to start acting on what I am learning.  I am starting to explore foundations that might give to our project revision.  I am thinking about expanding our program to serve younger children and their families.  I am ready to plan the May 3rd service at my church about the Immigration Justice Journey.  Mike and I will be doing that together.  I am ready to live the next 3 months to the fullest.

5.  I have been overwhelmed by the generosity I have experienced on this journey to date.  I have stayed at private homes in Arizona, California and Oregon.  A big shout out to our friends Barbara and Ron for showing us hospitality in Portal, Arizona; to friends Marilyn and Dale for allowing us shelter and space to enjoy Healing Waters in Desert Edge, California; to Debbie and Rick for sheltering us in Portland on the journey and twice more before the end of June; Marie Provine and Mike Shelton in Tempe Arizona.  The generosity of people who have shared their work and passion with me: Emrys Staton, Anna Ochoa O'Leary, Jose Rodas, Andrea Romero in Tucson; Darcy Dixon and all her crew in Santa Cruz County, Arizona; Cathi Lamp and her team in dry Tulare County; Benny Rodriguez at Bethlehem Center in Visalia; David Ginsburg and Lucia Kaiser at UC Davis; Marcel Horowitz and her team at Yolo County CE; Lorena Carranza at Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services; and Rebecca White and her Latino Resilience Enterprise Team in Tempe.  Most of all a deep sense of gratitude and relief that my husband Michael came along for the ride and ended up being pulled into the conversation.  I am grateful for the miles he drove and for his company.

6.  I have done some really fun things along the way.  We had a wonderful family reunion at our cousin Marc's home in Palm Springs.  We spent a night in Ashland, OR, on the way home and saw Guys and Dolls at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (preparation for going to NYC :>)).  We toured windmills, hiked, ate marvelous food, brought home a huge amount of fresh dates, deepened friendships and made new ones, took a side trip to San Diego and visited old friends there, explored Davis, California and I got to attend my first ever spring training game last week in Arizona!  Go Mariners!  They won, it was 95 degrees and I had a great time.

Dark blue clothes in 95 degree weather?  HOT!

7.  I really enjoy blogging.  I promised a shorter post today so I think I will let it go here.  As always, I am grateful for your readership and continued support.  I love hearing from family and friends who are reading.  We are off to NYC a week from tomorrow.  I will post once more before we head out!

Thanks for reading!

Butterflies at the Desert Botanical Gardens near Tempe, a reminder that life is short and to seize the day!

Challenges

I had startling and very sad news last night from my friends.  There was a multiple shooting over the weekend in Moscow, Idaho.  My friend Marilyn's brother, David Trail, was one of the victims.  My friend Laura wrote me that another victim, the shooter's mother, was friends with her husband Paul. Another innocent person also died, a manager at Arby's.  The shooter had at least 5 guns in his possession.  I am stunned and saddened.  Anytime I hear news of senseless death it upsets me.  The recent shootings in France also stimulated many feelings in me.  Many of you know my daughter Kate died in 2002 from sudden meningitis and the resulting encephalitis.  I have become friends with the grief process over the years and it becomes easier to recognize and flow with but it does not get much less intense.  Last night I lay awake thinking of Marilyn and her family and of the Moscow community where I have stayed many times.   I wish them peace and love.  I believe that we all share in these tragedies because we are connected and I worry for our world that so many think violence will solve problems on personal, family, community and society levels.

I write about this today because not only am I sad about this incident and all the senseless and destructive violence, but because I am thinking of the trip Mike and I will take into the Sonoran Desert with our Border Links/Immigration Justice experience. I know we will walk through the desert and see graves, possibly bones and other artifacts left by people trying to get into this country, to get to a better life for themselves and their loved ones.  It will be one of the hardest things I have to do on this sabbatical, to bear witness to the senseless destruction that immigration policies and world economic policies create.  And yet it is my task - to understand immigration and how it works currently (or does not work) and how it worked previously.  I hope and pray there will be some good news on this journey.  This morning it seems bleak because I am mourning with my friends and the people in and around Moscow.

Last night I spent some time finishing a quilt that I am donating to the Lydia Place auction.  (www.lydiaplace.org).  I am the past president of the board this year and my involvement is very rewarding.  I am grateful that my sister Betsy quilted the piece on her machine.  I was grateful to be able to have this wonderful quilt with a very happy pattern and soft flannel backing to finish and to know that someone will buy it and it will be source of warmth and comfort.  It was a source of warmth and comfort to me as I was working on it last night.  It helped mitigate the anger and the sadness I was feeling after hearing the shocking news.  This morning it has helped me to write about what happened and to express my feelings.  I was stuck as I sat down to write and found that the only thing I could write about to begin today's entry was the shootings.  I imagine that this blog may also be the way I make sense of what I see on the trip.  It was a good lesson.

I am posting a picture of the quilt. I call it Enchanted, named after the block pattern.

Thanks for reading.

Putting things in order

Boxing Day 2014

I chose to work at home today because of the sewer system repair at work.  There is something about using an outdoor Porto-potty in 40ish degree weather that is a deterrent.  Also the county is digging out the roots of the offending tree right underneath my window.  I have decided to go in on the 4th to clean up that space.  So I made huge progress cleaning out  my home office today.  Witness the before and after pictures of my desk.  I recycled lots of old papers. Some with memories, many not.  I also found photos amidst the accumulated paper.  Some of Kate, brought tears to my eyes.  The holidays are always bittersweet without her.  Some of Ben in his rugby playing days.  I am taking leave of all these papers and some personal books that will go the friends of the library and some other things for Wise Buys.  I like the ritual of Boxing Day and the opportunity to give things away.  It is a good cleansing feeling that follows the acquisition binge the holidays can bring.  

We had a minimalistic Christmas.  I love gift certificates and that was my favorite shopping.  The headliner gift for Mike and I is two tickets for the January 8th Cinema Thyme event at the Pickford Cinema.  We were lucky to get drawn in the lottery for tickets!  We will experience The Lunch Box and have a catered sit down dinner after the show and hors d'oeurves synced to the food in the movie.  The food experience is planned and catered by Ciao Thyme.

I am posting my before and after office pics, not without some trepidation because the before was so awful.

Quite a change.  I see I have more books to donate.  The featured book is one we will read for our Immigration Justice journey - Undocumented: How Immigration Became Illegal  by Aviva Chomsky.   Onward.