It’s so hard to find time to write, but right now love is pulsing through me and I’ve been dancing around clapping with happiness all evening. Now I just need to write. Usually, I write when I’m either deeply troubled or overflowing with joy (and those two often go hand in hand). And that is certainly the case now. Right now, when I look one way, I see the sky on fire with gold and orange and red; when I look the other way, I see pink and blue clouds reflecting the light onto the still harbor, they are flying away slowly.
I want so badly to share my life here on this island at COA. It’s so different, so much slower, quieter, and more peaceful than the life I left in New York. It’s amazing how when I make slowness and love a priority, time actually changes. Who said we have to measure our lives by the minute? I’m measuring my life in ideas, feelings, conversations, smiles, and tears; my days have become the Lupine’s blooming, the moon bright and full and the tide high, the scent of Lilac’s filling my room with every gust of wind, the heat lightning’s performance followed by the steady drumming of rain, and the clapping of thunder. Oh, oh, how I wish such beauty for you wherever you are, whoever you are.
We came together in love.
For dinner tonight, people came together for an island potluck to celebrate diversity and make new friends. The event was held on campus, but we invited all the towns and so many people came. Although we originally set up on the North Lawn, dark clouds brought us inside. Nevertheless, people showed up with baskets of food, and we covered the floors of Gates Auditorium with blankets to listen to songs and a few speakers.
We organized the event in response to recent crimes in the region to stand in solidarity with the victims and show that hate does not have a place here. It was just a week ago an e-mail went out to the COA community to invite people to come together to respond to the crimes. At least twenty people came to the initial meetings, and together we decided the event should be a celebration. We wanted to turn something negative into something positive. I am always sad when these crimes (committed by such a small minority of people) get so much attention in the news, and I strongly believe that after every crime of hate, there should be a response from people to show, “No, that’s not the world we want to live in, and we will respond to your actions with love—you thought you were being destructive, you thought you were hurting people, well, look at all this good that came from it.” Of course that requires people to actually take action, and so we did.
Working together, we contacted local churches, schools, and civic engagement organizations, we put up posters while newspapers ran articles about it and four radio stations publicized the event. People told their friends, and then just a little while ago, about a hundred of us sang together, ate together, and danced together.
There were so many things we thought of that we couldn’t do this year with the limited time and resources, but we’re thinking this should be an annual event: an island wide picnic for people to come together and talk. Here are pictures from this year.
0
Leave a Reply