Sakartvelo 6/17/10

It's Thursday in Tbilisi. Finally a day off. Having completed the AVP mini-workshops for two groups of children at the Tskneti orphanage (Saturday and Sunday), on Monday we began a full AVP workshop for teachers and staff at the same orphanage. This group was all women. Several had worked at the orphanage for more than twenty years. Aside from a seminar here and there none had received any specific training in working with the children. They seemed clear that while they love the children and do their very best that the children need much more than they have to give. The workshop was wonderful. Full of open spirits, laughter and tears and as we parted there were hugs and thank yous from both participants and facilitators. As we did our final evaluation our participants talked about the new skills that they had found within themselves and how they were already starting to put them to use in their lives and in their work with the children. Tomorrow, we begin our final workshop with a group of South Ossetian refugees from the war in 2008. These refugees still live in refugee housing provided by the Government of Georgia. In this instance it is an abandoned school building in the middle of Tbilisi - only a couple of blocks from the flat that I am staying in. The building is in quite a state of disrepair. One of the woman at this refugee center will host this workshop in her room. I suspect that the space will be challenging as it is quite small. I expect to find the trauma of war in this group and so I am doing my best to prepare myself and  the apprentice facilitators for that eventuality. I find my thoughts beginning to wander to home. I wonder how Max, my cat is doing in the house for five weeks and how he'll react to my being home again (Max was a feral cat before he decided to adopt me). I know that my car, with a blown head gasket and ring problem will not run very much longer and I know that I don't have funds to replace it. There will be a tax bill waiting. I look forward to hearing my daughter's voices and to meeting with my care committee and my home meeting. At the same time, there is a sadness as I think of leaving Sakartvelo. There is a Spirit here of welcome and love and joy, even in the midst of severe poverty and oppression, that calls out to me. There is a longing for Peace. I know in my heart that the work of peacemaking is needed in all corners of the world, including my tiny hometown in New York. For me, creating this blog is part of the work of peacemaking and so, as I return home and continue to share my spiritual path and insights, that too feels like peacemaking. Society talks about doing "random acts of kindness". I believe that we who choose the path of Peace are called to radical action: not random acts of kindness but "conscious acts of Love". For Love is the only power strong enough to overcome evil and to lead us to peace.