At a wedding Friday, I met a young woman working in a refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesvos—aka Lesbos. Because I’d asked her to, she contacted me Sunday (in the midst of packing, no doubt), with info as to where to contribute. (Now you can, too.) “I’ll hold you, your colleagues, and the people you are serving in the Light,” I emailed. “That’s Quakerese for a daily mindfulness,” I elucidated.
I see the two of us on Friday in our nicest wedding duds and best jewelry, holding wine glasses, perhaps: removed. Happy. Touched by a lovely wedding. Today, back on Lesvos, weaving between rows and rows of tents filled with Syrian families, does that young woman even remember our chat? Does that lovely wedding now seem a very, very long time ago? And far, too far away? Do all the best wishes, the thoughts and prayers and being held in the Light by well-wishers Back Home kind of seem beside the point today?! I would imagine so.
But she, and the small piece of this troubled, broken world she invokes, is still with me. She has enlarged and brought her backyard into clearer focus. This morning as two helicopters, like vultures, circled my backyard, I held Syrian refugees and the people of Puerto Rico and all those who lost their homes from northern California wildfires and all who suffer in the Light.
No, my prayers don’t solve the Syrian refugee crisis. They are merely a tool with which to dismantle my complacency.
May that dismantling bear fruit.
Dear Patricia,
Well, hi, there, Patricia, and greetings and salutations to you and to you and FOR VERY ESPECIALLY FOR YOU FOR ALWAYS my so, so very For Always soul sisterfriend, awesomely precious, and dearly special soul sisterfriend Christian Quaker woman who you’re FOR ALWAYS, so, so very much!!!!!! 🙂 <3 WOW, sistah, what a beautiful, brilliantly beautiful, emboldening, encouraging, and inspirational as usual as always once again blog post article this is by absolutely AWESOME YOU, Patricia!!!!! Sistahfriend, I just so absolutely LOVE this very fine and excellent writing here, Patricia!!!!! I just love so that you met our indomitable sister at the wonderful wedding who very strongly in such a lovingly heartfelt and sensitively caring manner works at the refugee camp at the Greek island of :Lesvos or Lesbos, my so, so very dearest and darling sistah and friend, Patricia!!!! WOW!!!!! I just know somehow that our sister is doing such great and life-sustaining, spirit-saving, and even life-saving work here!!!! WOW, what a great conversation and sharing together as sisters you two must have had I just know somehow, my friend, Patricia!!!!! WOW!!!!! I'm just so, so very glad, thrilled, overjoyed, and happy that as you asked her to that she contacted you with the information for donating to this sorely needed cause!!!!! I so love how you have also now provided this great info for each and every one of us here, sistah and friend of mine, Patricia!!!!! Sistah, WOW, it just so, so very moves and touches me in my very heart and spirit how you very delightfully and eagerly said to this dear woman heart to heart and spirit to spirit with the very empowering Quakerese saying which I just LOVE here in saying, "I'll hold you, your colleagues, and the people you are serving in the Light." My very heart and spirit just leapt for such blessed and uplifting joy from your saying to our wonderful sister this powerful Quakerese saying for a daily mindfulness, my soul sisterfriend Christian Quaker woman, Patricia!!!!! This very inspirational Quakerese saying just so, so very much moves and touches my very, very heart, and my very, very heart, mind, soul, and spirit, Patricia, just going straight to my very heart and spirit right in the very bottom of my heart within the deepest depths of my heart and spirit in all of my very being, sistahfriend Patricia!!!!!! 🙂 <3 WOW!!!!! Sister, I just LOVE your very great explanation about the island of Lesvos or Lesbos. I remember when I was a young girl trying to accept and understand my lesbianism that I read in one of the books that I'd sneak into my house hoping and wishing that my parents and family wouldn't find that back in a much earlier era there was a lesbian woman poet named Sappho on the island of Lesbos which was an island back then with very many lesbian women. I read very delightfully and eagerly that Sappho was quite a brilliant and talented poet and quite a romantic woman as well!!!!! WOW, I've always so enjoyed knowing about Sappho and her superb poetry and other writing with her romantic lesbianism and about all of the other awesome lesbians on the island of Lesbos back then giving me such comfort and solace in processing, accepting, and in embracing my being a lesbian, sister!!!!!! 🙂 <3
Sisterfriend, my very heart and spirit just ache and hurt so for the very dearest Syrian and other refugees, Patricia!!!!! I'm just so, so very sad and heartbroken for these special people when I watch and listen to the news!!!!!! My very heart and love and spirit, with my constant prayers praying without ceasing are so with these very dear folks with my steadfast thoughts and sending to all of them my lovingly heartfelt and sensitively caring, sweetly strong positive energy!!!!! I go before our So, So Very Loving and Powerful Spirit, and I place these very amazing people before our Lord and before our God's mercy seat, Patricia!!!!!! Our strong and dedicated sister, and as you wisely say, sistah and friend of mine, Patricia, the small piece of this troubled, broken world she invokes is still with me as well!!!!! Oh, my very heart just aches for them and my spirit goes before our Spirit with all of my very heart and spirit just beseeching our God to help and if the worse comes to help our so, so very dearest and darling sisters and brothers to cope somehow someway come what may and to make a way out of now way in navigating the very tricky terrain of all of this with what they face, experience, and endure, Patricia!!!!! Sisterfriend, I feel in some ways a sense of not knowing what to do for our sisters and brothers, and not knowing how or what to do to help them, not having the power to help them so I just pray and pray and pray for them constantly praying without saying because this is all Uncontainable as I reflect back on your very sagacious blog post article from a short time ago, Patricia!!!!!! Sisterfriend, I just so, so very much love, like, enjoy, and appreciate the very fitting and applicable title to this very relevant and urgent, vitally important blog post article of yours with the very perfect, picture perfect picture accompanying this super writing of yours here perfectly adding to and complementing all in all in its great entirety this very blessedly uplifting and informative blog post article here, Patricia!!!!! I thank-YOU so, so very much as well, sister, for the very marvelous links which you have very graciously and generously featured and included with this very pertinent writing here as usual as always once again providing for each and every one of us some great info here with these splendid links perfectly adding to, complementing, and supplementing your very masterful composition in the written word with such astute and acute wisdom writing here, Patricia!!!!! WOW!!!!!! Sister, the vultures link for some reason the last time that I clicked on it for some reason goes to an article regarding two very dear late people in your wonderful area who were killed by the commuter rail train. I still loved learning about these so, so very dearest deceased people so that I can pray for their families and friends uplifting them to our So, So Very Sweet Spirit to let them know that they for sure have Spirit's Very Love, Comfort, and Solace For Always!!!!!! I pray so hard and so much daily and very often thinking of the Syrian and other refugees, the people devastated by all of the vicious hurricanes like in Houston, Florida, and other areas like in Puerto Rico and all people suffering in one way or another everywhere, and I pray for our dear ones and sisters and brothers languishing in Northern California from those awful wildfires!!!!! I pray for and think of daily and very frequently of all awesome persons everywhere with my very heart, my very love, my very spirit!!!!! I'm with you here, sister, praying for all who suffer in the Light, and praying for in general for everybody in general for everything keeping all of you covered in prayers upon prayers upon prayers daily and very often with my thoughts so loving and cherishing YOU, Patricia, and each and every one of you sending to all of you with my spirit and with Spirit such great positive energy, Patricia!!!!!! 🙂 <3 And may all of our deep, innermost yearning and striving in all of our very hearts and spirits through our hearts and spirits with all of our very, very hearts, and our very, very hearts, minds, souls, and spirits very much indeed in fact bear fruit, Patricia!!!!!! 🙂 <3 Sisterfriend you are one wise woman, such a good woman of God, a good woman of such faith and spirit, Patricia, and I am as usual as always once again For Always so, so very much encouraged, uplifted, and inspired from YOU, sister, and your as always beautiful full of such soul and spirit and Spirit blog post articles, other emboldening writings and books, and with all that you do so, so very well in such a diligently conscientious fashion doing your absolutely very best with all that you have with all of your very being, Patricia!!!!! 🙂 <3 WOW!!!!!! YAY!!!!!! Sistah, WOW, I've such greatly added cheer feeling even better and brighter from absolutely wondrously wonderful YOU, sistahfriend Patricia, and also in very delightfully and eagerly with such blessed joy reading this outstanding blog post article of yours and very happily responding with such blessedly sweet joy with my very heartfelt, detailed, and thorough thoughts, ideas, and comments!!!!! And it is as usual as always once again such great fun for me, too, Patricia, to do so, my so, so very dearest friend!!!!! 🙂 <3 My friend, your very intercessory prayers and thoughts for me, and all of the so, so very special and sweet, steadfast intercessory prayers and thoughts for me with all of your love for me just so, so very much help me and keep me going in keeping on keeping on with my strongly abiding and enduring, sweetly positive optimism in keeping my very faith and hope alive, and I for sure daily and very frequently pray for and think of YOU, Patricia, and for each and every one of you in my very hearts of hearts and spirit also sending to you all such strong and great positive energy!!!!! I thank-YOU, so, so very much, Patricia, and I thank each and every one of you!!!!!!! 🙂 <3 I so, so very much love and cherish YOU, Patricia, and I just so, so very much love and cherish all of you!!!!!! 🙂 <3 Now I'm even more emboldened, encouraged, and inspired to continue on in very much being wanting, willing, and able to continue suiting up and showing up for duty in keeping on persisting, interrupting, and persisting!!!!!! 🙂 <3 WOW!!!! YAY!!!!! YAY FOR EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU!!!!!! YAY!!!!!! 🙂 <3 I pray daily and very often all of the time just thanking God for each and every one of you!!!!!! 🙂 <3 Sistahfriend, I thank-YOU and Spirit continually for YOU, sistah, and for your very presence in my very life, Patricia!!!!! 🙂 <3 YAY for YOU, Patricia!!!! YAY for all you do straight from your beautifully loving heart in spirit, Patricia!!!!! WOW!!!!! YAY!!!!!! YAY YAY YAY YAY, my friend!!!!!! 🙂 <3 Sistah and friend of mine, Patricia, YOU are my life and eternal blessing just as I know that you are for very many other people who also just so, so very much love and cherish YOU as I do A WHOLE BUNCH just knowing how you so love and cherish each and every one of us, too!!!!!! 🙂 <3 Sisterfriend, please have a superbly super Saturday, a wondrously wonderful rest of your weekend, and may all of your very days be so, so very especially blessed, Patricia!!!!! YOU are just such the very greatest and the very best, Patricia, and such the very epitome of such overall awesomeness, my friend!!!!! 🙂 <3 Spirit just so, so very much loves and cherishes YOU A WHOLE BUNCH, Patricia, and so do I!!!!! 🙂 <3
Very Warmly and Sincerely For Always, my awesomely special and dearly precious soul sisterfriend For Always Christian Quaker white woman who you're For Always so, so very much, Patricia, sisterfriend of mine, with My and Spirit's Very Peace and Love FOR YOU FOR ALWAYS, sister of mine, and with Such Blessings and Such Very Even More Blessings FOR YOU FOR ALWAYS, friend of mine,
Yours FOR ALWAYS soul sisterfriend Christian black woman and For Always in the very great spirit of unity and solidarity, Sherry Gordon in Iowa City, Iowa
Sistah, oops, I forgot to say that I’m so, so very saddened that your Boston Red Sox were eliminated by the Houston Astros in the playoffs!!!! I was so rooting for our Red Sox along with Red Sox Nation, Patricia!!!!! Sistahfriend, as you probably already know the Cleveland Indians were eliminated in the playoffs by the New York Yankees!!!! I’m so, so very sad that the Indians didn’t make it!!!! Alas, though, I’m a good sport and very sportsmanlike and I don’t take my sports or my teams too seriously!!!!! It is only a game!!!! My friend, I have something in common with Boston Red Sox fans-I just absolutely cannot stand the New York Yankees!!!! I’ve for a long time haven’t been a big fan of those Yankees!!!!!! Wait ’til next year for both our Cleveland Indians and our Boston Red Sox, Patricia!!!!!! 🙂 <3