Dear Jan,
When I left San Diego last week, Haiti had not yet experienced its tragic earthquake. By day one of my journey to the Dominican Sisters of Hope in Ossining, New York, thousands of people had lost their lives. By day 2, the leadership team, with the help of the staff at their Mariandale Retreat Center, had organized a massive benefit in their chapel for Sunday and Pete Seeger was coming to sing. This was all in the middle of their major leadership planning session which I was facilitating.
By the end of the day, Tom Chapin had called offering to sing. All Saturday we were engaged in a Leadership Training Day for 50+ sisters, and from 9-3 on Sunday I facilitated a workshop which the community sponsored for 70+ people from diverse organizations committed to creating sustainable communities. One hour later, the concert began. 600 people attended and donated over $19,000 for the people of Haiti. They're making miracles back here.
Today I met with the Leadership team all day, then ate a quick supper and several of us attended an ecumenical celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Day. One of the speakers, Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, spoke of one of her teachers who walked arm in arm with Dr. King in Selma, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who said that it is "our job to take a leap of action, not a leap of thought." She reminded us of King's words that "war is an enemy of the poor" and that our batttle should be against war itself.
Two teens, one Jewish and one Muslim read the same words from their holy books, the Torah and the Koran: To save one life is to save the world entire.
A woman from the Star of Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church came to the pulpit with a woman from Congregation Sons of Israel. They were both leaders of teen groups in their congregations and came to tell the story of how their two groups have joined together to attend services at each others' churches and temples in order to better understand each others' cultures. They had spent the day in NY preparing medical packages to be sent to Haiti, all as one unified group.
In the back of the room after the celebration, I ran into the Maryknoll Sister from Hong Kong who mailed letters of support to me in every city I traveled to as I made my peace pilgrimage around the world in 1984-5. I never would have made it without her steadfast love and words nudging me beyond my fear, and I hadn't seen her in all those years.
We need each other in so many ways and all week long I have been watching people finding each other and finding themselves in so many beautiful occasions. I've seen nothing but extensions of generosity, examples of compassion, celebrations of all the right things for seven days in a row. Global tragedies always provide us with mirrors to our real connectedness. They help us see somehow that my light is just light that's bounced off of you. One light, six billion reflections.
I'm so glad to be out here, witnessing the soul force of my human family. And having a community like you to share it with. Thank you for being there for me. Thank you for giving me a reason to write down these stories, so I get to feel them running through me like sap through a maple.
I hope you all stumble into the beauty that's waiting to be found by you.
Love,
Jan
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