A little bit louder now

This morning's liturgy and scripture readings inspired me to reopen my Facebook page, "Angels Unawares" to speak my understanding of the Gospel in response to the fearmongers. Rather than recoil from the hatred—one commenter hoped that I'll be raped by a "rapefugee"—I will answer every one with the Word.

My life is guided by two scripture passages in particular: "For what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God" (Micah 6:8); and "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares" (Hebrews 13:2). These are my guiding commandments, both of which call me to give aid to those risking their lives to save their lives.

I hadn't expected this call to begin now, during my preparations to answer it. Apparently when you're called, you're called to immediate action! My work begins now, not in January.

It's my hope that those of you in support of welcoming the stranger will also comment on Angels Unawares so that my voice isn't the only one in opposition to the xenophobes. We need to speak up for our beliefs, join our voices together so the xenophobes don't carry the day. They aren't afraid to make a lot of noise—let's be louder than them!

(Shout) a little bit louder now… a little bit louder now… a little bit louder now…

You need the paperwork to make it official

I'M IN!

I just had my CELTA certificate interview, and I have been offered a place in the January 2017 online course! And if there aren't enough students to run that course (which rarely happens), I can just transfer to another one. The biggest hurdle in my path to helping forcibly displaced people learn English language skills has been cleared!

Now I just have to get the money together. As my mother always said when things looked financially impossible, "The Lord will provide." I'm trusting her on that one.

Tweets from Aleppo

If you have a Twitter account, follow @AlabedBana for a child's-eye view of life in Aleppo today. It's better than news reports for understanding the reality there. If you don't have a Twitter account, it's worth setting one up just for this.

Abundance living

I have deleted my Angels Unaware(s) Facebook page. All it was bringing in was hatemongering comments, and after having to read and respond or mostly just delete 5 or 6 of them every day, I decided it wasn't worth it. It was a good insight into how much ignorance there is out there about world events, and how self-protective many people are. Clearly our culture is founded on a belief in scarcity, so whatever one person or group gets means less for everyone else. I've been practicing a cosmology/theology of abundance for a couple of decades now and still frequently catch myself in scarcity mode. Capitalism is based on scarcity thinking, so it's really hard to free yourself from it if you've grown up in a capitalist society.

Scarcity thinking leads to feelings of fear, competition, and insularity--I must protect what I have, so I will fight off anyone who might take it away from me and push them outside my home boundary. And if you're near the bottom of the heap already, you'll fight all that much harder to keep what you have. Xenophobia, racism, bigotry are all results of scarcity thinking. "Why don't you take care of our own before throwing your money at refugees?" "If they'd stood up and fought for their country, they wouldn't be running away now! Why should we help them?" "I'm tired of my tax dollars being thrown away on people who aren't even from here." Those are the refrains I've heard repeated on every comment but one since I made my page public.

Abundance thinking allows generosity, compassion, and radical hospitality. You can share what you have with others because there is always more. It's a tough sell in these hard times, but I believe that it's true and that it's the only way to live fully. Living out of abundance requires community and trust--you have to share with each other, so you can't be a rugged individualist and live abundantly. You can't win and live abundantly. You can't be fearful and live abundantly.

When you think about it, abundance living should be easier than scarcity living. So much less stress and anxiety! Why do we choose anxiety over joy? Why is joy so hard to remember? Note to self: Remember joy. There is always more.

Aleppo, child's-eye view

https://twitter.com/alabedbana/status/789513577292001280

This is why

https://instagram.com/p/BLvn-5ChEvD/

Flashback

Boning up on my grammar—transitive vs. intransitive verbs; direct vs. indirect objects; predicate nominative (what the hell is that? I can never remember)—

I'm sitting in a desk in my junior English class, the smell of chalk, the teacher who used to be a nun until she fell in love with someone, who had great stories about getting in trouble in Catholic school—

Total flashback.

Facebook ad

I've never tried "boosting" my page on Facebook, but for 2 weeks of advertising for $14, why not give it a try?  Because—it's really hard for me to put myself out there and ask for money.  Financial dealings were considered distasteful in my family, and supporting yourself was paramount.  So to me, asking for financial help is both airing dirty laundry and failing to stand on my own two feet.  Double shampoo .  And add to that the stain of advertising… well, I'm having to swallow A LOT of pride!

Shame and pride are like the A and B sides of my inner 45rpm—same record, different songs.  Advertising my fundraising campaign on Facebook is spinning both sides at once, a tangle of noise that makes it hard to hear.  Herman Hesse writes in Siddhartha,

And all the voices, all the goals, all the yearnings, all the sorrows, all the pleasures, all the good and evil, all of them together was the world. All of them together was the stream of events, the music of life.

The shame and the pride are the music of my life, I guess.  The more I practice singing a new song, the more the old ones fade out.  Again, Herman Hesse:

We are not going in circles, we are going upwards. The path is a spiral; we have already climbed many steps.

Or, in my case, sung many songs. And boosted my Facebook page.

Welcome to Sumac Road

I began my blog Cumulus over 10 years ago during a time of deep change. The past 10 years have seen that change take root, and now I feel it is time to move on to a new presence online. Cumulus will still be available if you want to take a look—there are LOTS of photos from the past 10 years, including travels in London and Istanbul, so check it out sometime, maybe.

This blog, Sumac Road, will be primarily a journal of my pursuit of a Certificate in English Language Training to Adults (or CELTA), followed by my experiences welcoming strangers to our land, getting to know them, and helping them establish a new home here. I expect it will be a journey full of challenges, surprises, and hopefully laughter amidst the grief of forced emigration. My ultimate goal is to use music and art and poetry to provide a place for newcomers to create their own beauty, to find themselves here, to share themselves with us in those places of fear, despair, hope, and joy.