How to show we are Thankful

Happy Eid al-Adha and Thanksgiving to everyone back home!  Two weeks ago we celebrated the Eid al-Adha Holiday here in the Holy Land which is a time when Muslim pilgrims go on the Hajj, donate food to the poor, have a feast with family and friends, and everyone goes on vacation.  This vacation ranges from going to exotic places in Israel and Palestine to visiting with family and friends close to home.  A time of fellowship, spending time with friends, and being so thankful for the things that we have in life.  All of this is all the more powerful because of it falling near the same time as the American holiday of Thanksgiving.  I guess what I am experiencing in my 3^rd month here in the Holy Land is a compilation of so many different emotions encompassing both frustration and happiness when I am reflecting on the things that I am thankful for, and take for granted.

There is no question that writing blog entries is becoming harder and harder to do, and it is not because I do not have enough to talk about.  I am becoming more aware of a new sense of being after three months of gradually peeling through the countless layers, and constantly being made aware of so many new stories that are reshaping my personal feelings.  I just find everything so fascinating about my daily life now.  The honeymoon period has been over for quite some time now, and the absolute reality that this is my new home for the next eight months puts things into perspective more than it did before.  I am valuing the friendships I have made here with a new level of appreciation, because these are the people that are going to continue to accompany me through this journey full of new discoveries.  Some of these new discoveries are simply new ways of looking at a situation with a clear lens, untainted, and willing to see the whole picture.  There is also a new awareness of things that have been right in front of me that I have simply overlooked for no good reason.  All of these different thoughts have been going through my mind as I am working through my own discernment for how to best be a faithful steward to accompaniment in the coming months, as well as how to take these experiences with me in my future.  An interesting thing is also happening with my discernment, because the experiences I am having here seem to be turning on more street lamps on the highway of my discernment to a path that has always been there but ignored. 

Some of the experiences that have been especially special to me these past few weeks have been the great friendships I am forming at my placement and in the surrounding community.  Whether these experiences are at school singing Christmas hymns with the children or sharing Thanksgiving with International friends at the Mount of Olives there are always opportunities to become a part of the greater community in the world.  I have found that with every new person I meet here, I become more aware of the Global community and how important it is to become more active in it.  I am just so incredibly thankful for the people I have met here, and how they have been such a guiding light for my own faith journey.  This goes far beyond reading Biblical texts where they supposedly happened, but knowing that Christ always reached out to those who were oppressed, and looked down upon to empower those who were oppressed to live a new life in him and with him so that good might overcome the evil in this world.

I recently read a wonderful text by The Buddha that read:

“The thought manifests as the word; the word manifests as the deed; the deed develops into habit; and habit hardens into character.  So watch the thought and its ways with care, and let it spring from love born out of concern for all things.”  -- The Buddha

I think one of the reasons this stood out to me is because I am trying to become more globally conscious of the things occurring around me.  In addition to this, I want to be sure that I am always mindful of where I started at the beginning of this journey here in the Holy Land so that when I return to the States I can be a good messenger to tell the stories about the people I have met here, and how telling others about my stories will make a difference.  Maybe not a headline in a newspaper, or a highlight on the five o clock news, but the story about the familiar faces at the checkpoint, that taxi driver who always greets you with a smile, or the countless friendships that will never be forgotten be in someone’s mind before they go to bed at night so that maybe…just maybe…the walls of injustice may be broken down for good. 

Salaam dayman,

David