Blessings

 This trip to Sakartvelo was not what I had expected it to be.  It was not what I had hoped for, and yet, there are blessings.

I am blessed to have reconnected, face to face, with my dear F/friend Misha.  I am blessed to have connected with Act for Transformation's Inga Shumagia, Executive Director of the organization's Caucuses office.  She is smart and focused and she is able to envision a clear path forward.  Alena Kemm works with many groups that partner with Act for Transformation doing trainings primarily with the Fairtogether program.  This program is an adaptation of the Alternatives to Violence Project used primarily with younger people to great success.

On this trip, I was able to make a connection for Act for Transformation with a US Embassy officer who came to the Act for Transformation offices, met the staff, heard the stories, and was visibly impressed.  He encouraged Inga and Alena to invite others from the embassy and to request much needed funds.

I had been asked if I would give a lecture on a topic of my choosing on the Monday of my second week in Tbilisi.  I chose to speak on Peacemaking in Today's World.  I'm not sure just where that topic came from but it gave me good opportunity to reflect on the state of the world and the role that we each can play as peacemakers.   It was a small group of like minded peacemakers that attended and so I decided to abbreviate my remarks and to ask those present for their thoughts and concerns.  It became a deep and wonderful conversation. A true blessing!

 I am blessed to have been in contact with both Ukrainian refugees and Russian Conscientious Objectors.  Learning a bit about their struggles, hearing their stories brings a searing reality to their plight.  I think for me, in my leading as a peacemaker, this is a blessing and a challenge.  As I step into the work of peacemaking my heart is cracked open again and again as I find myself confronted with more than I feel I can possibly hold.  There is often a point at which my heart feels as if it will burst with both a love for these people and from the pain that I now carry within as their plight becomes real to me.  It means acknowledging over and over again that the work that I am given, the work that I attempt to do, comes from Spirit.  When it is clearly Spirit that calls me into work, I must trust that I will be given whatever gifts I need to carry the work.  This is a truth that I find myself needing to learn over and over again.

One final story - As Misha and I prepared to leave a meeting with Ukrainian refugees and older gentleman asked (through a translator) what my heritage is.  I was slightly taken aback but shared that my mother was of mixed European descent and that my father's family were Ashkenazi Jews from Odessa.  He grinned broadly and said that he'd known it.  I've only known my father's heritage for a couple of years.  There was something in that acknowledgement that brought me to tears.  It felt almost like coming home.

The work that I had planned to do during this trip eluded me.  There were moments of frustration and self doubt.  But as I reflect back I see the blessings that I have brought home and the blessings that Spirit has allowed me to leave in Sakartvelo and  I am grateful.

Reflections...

 It is early days to  know all of the implications of my time in Sakartvelo (the ancient name for Georgia). Differences rise for me first.  A sense of tension as I walk among residents of the city.  A recognition of different ethnicities - Georgian, Russian, Ukrainian and the confluence of multiple languages.  People seem just a bit less at ease, just a bit less helpful and open.  There is so much need for peacemaking in the midst of this.

I had hoped to find the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) continuing to thrive as it had been when I left twelve years ago.  This kind of work for personal and community peace is so important in this environment.  Unfortunately, I did not find a thriving AVP community.  Instead, I learned that many of the facilitators stopped due to family commitments,  or jobs and some of the AVP facilitators were again asking for financial compensation to do workshops.  There are so many reasons why paying facilitators can't work.  The work of AVP needs to come from the heart - that changes when facilitators are paid.  Also,  AVP workshops are based on all participants being equals.  If someone is paid to be there than clearly they are not equal to those who are unpaid.  It is a great sorrow for me to find this.

I began a conversation with Inga Shumagia, the Executive Director at the Act for Transformation Caucuses office around the possibility of sending Young Friends from Baltimore Yearly Meeting and possibly New York Yearly Meeting to Georgia as interns and to possibly do an exchange with Georgian interns.  We were both excited about this possibility and I committed to starting the process by writing up my thoughts of how this might work.  After our conversation I found that Act for Transformation Caucuses office is struggling financially and I'm feeling that this sort of internship is not viable.

As I sit today.  It feels as if my work in Sakartvelo has come to an end.  I have been blessed by the many experiences and friends that have come my way in Sakartvelo.   Friends that I will continue to carry in my heart and in relationship.  I remind myself that, as this blog is called "Journey to Peace", the work is not only about the work in Sakartvelo.  The path to peace winds throughout our own communities, cities, states, country.  Long before this trip to Sakartvelo, I had been planning work in collaboration with the McKim School in Baltimore and I'm hoping to open conversations with local AVP facilitators to do community workshops.  But there is so much more to do beyond the work of AVP.

AVP is an incredible tool to help us to meet violence nonviolently.  Nonetheless, it feels almost more important at this time, to lift up our faith, the faith of Quakers everywhere, as an immersive faith.  As a way of being in the world for one and all.

 

What does it mean to be at peace?

Where to begin?  I think with personal peace.  For me, when I can come to a place of peace within myself, I find that I can carry that peace with me and share it, even radiate it to other people. 

Finding my way to peace is not something that just happened one day.  It has been many years of learning, and constant practice, both of which continue every day.  Part of this comes from the practice of my Quaker faith which, I believe, is an immersive faith.  While Quakers have no creed there are understandings among us that we agree to try to practice in our lives.  First is that we believe that there is that of God, of Spirit, in every human and that we look for that spark in everyone before anything else.  This is the place where we are truly all equals.  Then there are the testimonies.  Our testimonies suggest to us ways in which we may deepen our lives and understanding in the Spirit.  We are called to live into the testimonies so that we can testify to how each one, and all of them together, inform our lives.  There are five broad categories: Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality.  For me, each one of the testimonies calls me to deeply reflect on my life and works.  What have I done to simplify my life and possessions?  What am I doing to find peace in myself and in the world?  Am I living from a place of integrity, of honesty?  What am I doing to help strengthen and feed my community?  Am I treating everyone the same?   All of these things work to create one cohesive way of being in the world.  They create the immersive faith that I believe creates the Quaker way of being in the world.  Being a Quaker and working to follow the Quaker way of life was an early opening  for me in finding my way to peace.

The meeting for worship that I attend is an unprogrammed meeting - that is to say that there is no priest, no formal prayer or particular format.  We come together on a Sunday morning to sit in silence.  Within the silence, we individually invite God/Spirit to be with us and to speak to us directly.  When we are clear that we have received such a message we rise and share it with those present.  This kind of worship calls us to be prepared for an encounter with Spirit.  For me, it requires a daily practice of  sitting in silence and waiting on Spirit.  It means opening myself to different ways of hearing and learning which I do through many different kinds of spiritual reading.

Over time, all of these practices create a calmness, an openness, a love that moves within and beyond myself.  It creates a deep quiet well within that I can go to when I need to recharge and that I can draw upon when I am called on to bring God's peace into the world.

 My constant prayer came to me from Spirit as I sat in silent worship:

Let my words be thy words

Let my will be thy will

Help me to be your Peace. 

May we all know that place of Peace.

 One More Week ...

Two more days of traveling.  This time to the Kakheti region which is a major wine making region.  I traveled at the invitation of Sergei and his family.  Sergei is a C.O. from the Russian Federation's draft, having received three conscription notices so far.  He has been hoping that I might help to find him some assistance to emigrate to the United States.  I think I say, more than anything else, that I am not an expert and that I only know what I am able to see online.  From what I see online, I am surprised to see how challenging emigration to the U.S. for both Russians and Ukrainians is.

Yesterday afternoon I had a wonderful treat!  I was able to worship with old Friends (and new) at Tbilisi Friends Worship Group.  Several of the members I first met on my first trip to Georgia in 2009.  The worship felt deep and well grounded.   I shared pictures of where I worship at Gunpowder Friends Meeting (Sparks, MD, Baltimore Yearly Meeting).  They were excited and pleased to receive bookmarks with four seasons pictures of our Meeting house.  We had wonderful treats and good conversation.

Over the last week I have been working to set up a meeting at the Act for Transformation office with a representative from the U.S. embassy.   Today those efforts finally came to fruition. Ryan Sherman, Cultural Programs Coordinator in the public affairs area came to meet me and Act for Transformation staff at their offices.  We spoke for quite some time about the Alternatives to Violence Project and Fairtogether and the impact that they have on people's lives.  Alena and Inga shared about the amazing work that they are doing in Georgia but also in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Ukraine.  Misha shared about the work that he is doing facilitating work with Ukrainian and Russian refugees and conscientious objectors.  Ryan was openly impressed.  He had been unaware of this work for peace.  He was surprised to know that facilitators that I trained twelve and thirteen years ago are still working.  He shared possibilities for financial support from the US embassy.  I will work with Act for Transformation in whatever way I cane to facilitate these grants.

Finally, this morning I presented my talk on Peacemaking in Today's world.  We were a small group made up exclusively of men and woman who are working for peace.  I decided to keep my remarks short (fifteen minutes) and to spend how ever long felt right in discussion.  It was a deep and heartfelt exchange in which we learned from each other.  I will share more about it in a separate post

I am grateful for this time of stretching and growing for myself and those that I am able to touch.