Saturday, March 9, 2019

From Mission to Mission and Legacy of Love


From Mission to Mission: 

One of the most challenging aspects of any mission experience in another country for many people is "re-entry."  It is sometimes overlooked or misunderstood.  After spending time overseas, we come back changed, and often to find that the places and people we left have changed as well.  What is assumed to be a homecoming is often actually disorienting and difficult at least for a while.  When missioned in another country and culture we are not ever really fully at home there (we are always foreigners,) and when we return we typically don't feel fully at home either.  

Since my last update, I was fortunate to spend several days in San Antonio participating in a From Mission to Mission re-entry workshop.  It was a gift to meet and connect with others who have returned to the US after mission experiences in various places.  I am grateful that I was able to hear their stories and to be understood well when telling my own.  The workshop topics, prayer experiences, planned and spontaneous discussions were all very relevant and helpful.  I recommend anyone returning "home" after a ministry experience in another country consider participating in From Mission to Mission or another similar re-entry program (if one exists.)         


At one point in the workshop, we were asked to reflect upon our personal legacy.  For me, if we live and love well, legacy will happen naturally.  During our time for reflection on our personal legacies, I wrote the following:  


Legacy of Love
Let love be my legacy,
even if my name and face be long forgotten,

May my love live like little seeds of compassion
planted in the hearts of children.

Or like the drops of rain that nourish the seeds
and seem then to disappear
but leave the plant healthier because the raindrop once was there.

Or like a bit of fertile compost
feeding the seedling. 

Even if my name and face be long forgotten

may love be my legacy.   




The pictures included here were taken in San Antonio.  




May each of you experience many blessings during this season of Lent.  Take care.  




Thursday, January 24, 2019

Trust in Transformation

A few days ago, I noticed many Monarch caterpillars clinging to Milkweed leaves on a cold (for Louisiana) and very windy day here in Metairie.

  The first picture is one I took the other day and the other I took last summer in New Orleans. 

Obviously, I added the words, probably for my own sake.  Currently, I am in an in-between time of uncertainty and transition.  Hopefully, this time will help me to grow and transform at least a little more fully into my true self, the person I was created to be. 

Since we all probably need this reminder from time to time, I am posting the photos here so that they can be shared. 





Many blessings as you hang in there and trust in transformation! 

Tuesday, January 15, 2019

Trees on Retreat


Yesterday I finished eight days of silent directed retreat.  In a sense it was very much needed, and yet I realize how very fortunate and privileged I am to be able to take this time.  I am grateful. 

This was the first time that I made retreat in the middle of winter, and I did so in New England.  To think early last month I was in a place where if the temperature dropped below 70 degrees Fahrenheit, it was considered cold.  On retreat this past week, when occasionally the temperature reached just above freezing I was thankful for the warm weather.   How quickly perspectives can dramatically shift with a change in environment! 

Trees caught my attention, especially the deciduous trees, which seemed so dead though, in reality, they are just dormant.  Such a contrast to the Mango and coconut trees I left behind in Haiti!  It somehow seemed to make sense that I was on retreat in winter, for I needed a moment of stillness, to be dormant like the trees and allow the Spirit to work silently in me. 

In some ways, though I realized that parts of myself that had been dormant began to awaken during retreat.  During my time in Grand Goave, I had not written poetry and took pictures only rarely. Writing even simple blog entries had become a chore so much so that when I returned I did not intend to continue writing regularly. During retreat, poems started writing themselves in my head as I walked along nature trails at a nearby park. A part of myself came back to life bringing with it the courage and hope necessary to begin again. 

For the second time, since I wrote what I thought might be my final Haiti blog entry, I  am writing again because I feel inspired to do so.  I want to share with you, anyone who is actually interested enough to read this, a poem and a photo of the image that inspired it. 


   

In a seeming mid-life moment, 
so unexpectedly the tall tree was chopped down, 
fallen, 
feeling and fearing failure.    
But, hope hides in the hollow of dead decaying stumps, 
and grief and growth go together, 
Wisdom winks and whispers 
of perpetual paschal patterns. 
What was will nourish all that will be. 
There upon the dead decaying stump, 
a new tree of another species grows, 
the roots of the two intertwine underneath
the former's fading, feeding the flourishing sapling.  


Peace and blessings to you!   

Sunday, January 6, 2019

Rest-Stop Reflection

Reflection
On my way to visit my great aunt in New Jersey, I stopped at a rest stop.  After purchasing something to eat for lunch, I sat down.  At a nearby table, there was a woman wearing the uniform of one of the fast-food restaurants present at that rest-stop.  The woman was eating her lunch.  Another woman came by and spoke with her briefly before continuing on to do her work. They spoke to each other in Haitian Creole.   Since we were at very close by tables, both of us eating alone, I decided to start a conversation.  I started the conversation by sharing my observation in Haitian Creole that she speaks Haitian Creole.

We chatted about soup joumou, mangoes, and other Haitian foods.  Then, she talked about how life is difficult in the United States.  She has a couple of children and no other family here.  She misses her country and her family a lot.

In Haiti the majority of people are not able to find what would be considered stable employment.  Even with a hard to come by regular job, she would most likely be making considerably less money in a day than she is probably making an hour at the fast-food restaurant.  Still, raising children in the US, especially in a part of the country where the cost of living is high, must be a struggle.  She is doing so without the emotional and social support of extended family that she likely had in Haiti.  I felt a wave of empathy for her and realizing how for her both staying in Haiti and coming to the US, would so very difficult and in a much deeper way than I can honestly say I have experienced because so much of her energy probably goes into meeting basic needs, simply surviving. 

Immigration is a major topic on the news in this country these days since there is so much disagreement over funding of a wall to keep people who don't have the proper paperwork from entering the United States.  Currently, the federal government is partially shut down because of this.  While reflecting upon the conversation I had with the worker at the rest-stop, what I have witnessed in Haiti and the current political discourse in the United States, I concluded that at least from my perspective the whole immigration conversation and efforts are misguided.

Certainly, I don't know how to solve the world's complicated problems myself, but I was thinking, what if all of the money that could go into a wall, or other forms of "border security," would instead be used to seek creative solutions to eradicating poverty and work towards eliminating the conditions that drive people to leave their beloved families and homelands?   Immigration is not the problem;  "illegal immigration" is a symptom and response to systemic problems and extreme injustice. I am not saying that reallocating the much-debated potential "wall" money would fully solve any problem, just considering that it may be more effective; I am convinced that it would at least no less effective than a wall and much more humane.  Please understand, I am not suggesting that the money be allocated as charity, which can alleviate some short-term suffering but typically does nothing to change the system and too often reinforces unjust power differentials.  Let's get to the root of real problems instead of paranoid self-protection and obsessive exclusion.  The goal of any immigration policy would not be to exclude people who would choose to come to the United States, but to make it possible for those who would prefer to live in their homeland to do so and have access to employment that pays wages that allow them to do more than barely survive, access to  quality education for their children, and basic protections of civil rights and safety.

Let's listen to the stories and try to understand the realities of immigrants who have come to the US and those who desire to leave their countries because of the conditions they experience.  Let us not forget the stories of people in our own families (like my great aunt who I am visiting) who immigrated and the challenges they faced.  Let us build relationships instead of walls.     
 
Update
Last time I updated the blog, I was not sure if or when I would write again but felt inspired to share my reflection.  Thanks for taking the time to read it.  So many people who read my previous blog responded with support and compassion; thank you!