J wanted to talk about some of the arrangements for Shahabuddin's visit in April. Some of us were able to volunteer to help with various chores. It is so exciting, he is almost here!
T had a similar piece of business - talking about various roles that people would take in a committee.
D was excited to tell us that she has 2 possible jobs.
We all checked in with a little news of what was going on in our lives, some good news, some not so good, but we were all glad to be with our dear friends, and to be able to share food and our hopes and fears.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Monday, March 1, 2010
Minutes for Meeting February 22, 2010
I hope all my faithful readers are wondering what has happened to us! Well, we did not meet in December - too many Christmas/Holiday commitments, and in January 2010 I was recovering from some surgery, and my brain was still fogged by drugs!
This month, we started with our usual potluck, and gradually moved into conversation.
J told us about hearing a speaker - Mark Braverman, from an organisation called Sabeel, and how intensely it affected her. Sabeel means "the way", or a spring, in Arabic, and they are a Palestinian Christian peace movement, who disagree with some Zionist interpretations of the Old Testament. Mark is a 5th generation Jewish Palestinian, who says he had absorbed all the traditional stories about Israel, and then in a visit to the West Bank he suddenly saw what the occupation had done to the Palestinians. This turned him around, so that now he spends his time lecturing to American Christians about their uncritical support of Israel. His words came as a great relief to J, to hear another Jewish person say things out loud that she had always felt, but had not dared to voice.
We drifted to another conversation, about love, and what it means, trying to understand that our love for another does not depend on them loving us, or returning our affection - yet our society constantly supports the opposite idea, that our love must be returned in order for us to be happy, and if it is rejected then we have failed.
What was so good about this evening for me, was how intense and carefully thought out the conversations were, how we all listened to each other with open hearts. We all learned things. I felt that our group has come closer to its purpose. How quickly the time flew past!
This month, we started with our usual potluck, and gradually moved into conversation.
J told us about hearing a speaker - Mark Braverman, from an organisation called Sabeel, and how intensely it affected her. Sabeel means "the way", or a spring, in Arabic, and they are a Palestinian Christian peace movement, who disagree with some Zionist interpretations of the Old Testament. Mark is a 5th generation Jewish Palestinian, who says he had absorbed all the traditional stories about Israel, and then in a visit to the West Bank he suddenly saw what the occupation had done to the Palestinians. This turned him around, so that now he spends his time lecturing to American Christians about their uncritical support of Israel. His words came as a great relief to J, to hear another Jewish person say things out loud that she had always felt, but had not dared to voice.
We drifted to another conversation, about love, and what it means, trying to understand that our love for another does not depend on them loving us, or returning our affection - yet our society constantly supports the opposite idea, that our love must be returned in order for us to be happy, and if it is rejected then we have failed.
What was so good about this evening for me, was how intense and carefully thought out the conversations were, how we all listened to each other with open hearts. We all learned things. I felt that our group has come closer to its purpose. How quickly the time flew past!