singularverse

Finding Ourselves in Others and Others in Ourselves

Life has been so elusive lately, shrouded in ends with not many beginnings. Today I decided it was time to connect. I found a new blogger online whom I met by butting into her group's conversation at Barnes & Noble. I liked her and her group, who enthusiastically proposed she blog. Their support was notable, as these people were strangers who became friends, simply by talking. I know. How archaic, how untech-like, how magical is that! So, I reconnected with her via her blog and hope to see her and her compadres in virtual and real space soon. Life is short and connection is why we are here, in part. The other part is up to each of us; the What and the How and the When and the Where. Quite simply, our tasks and who we choose to do them with. Over time, gradually, I have been choosing solitude for writing and creativity for connection. Of the two, I prefer connected creativity. The rhetoric has been so hostile, the unity has been fragmenting, and so it is time to place beauty and connection back into life. My connection theme lately has been a project I am calling-Taking Flight. It is a creative focus on how all of us who live in the United States, came from somewhere else. In short, we are all refugees here. At some moment in our ancestry and heritage, someone took flight. They came from there to here with a leap of faith and a dream. I am interested in what propels people in their lives to seize that moment, like my new-found blogger friend Laura. What propelled her and her group to start a discussion and take flight into friendship? What propelled her to write in a public way and take flight into being heard? What gives us lift, and makes us soar? If we know how it was done in our families, through transgenerational wisdom, we can learn how to do it in ourselves. The truth is, we all have taken flight too, from somewhere bad to somewhere better, and I am so interested in that momentum, which is healing.

The side bar has pictures of feathers, that are the start of Taking Flight, which was launched at the annual Refugee Summit in my state. The work will be to help people contemplate what gave them strength to make needed changes in their lives, what is their ancestral story of immigration, and what is their familial source of resilience through risk to empowerment? If we can answer the questions, we can soar. Taking Flight involves creation of paper feathers that hold words, phrases, sentences or even paragraphs to remind us of our unique sources of empowerment. The feathers will be created and hung on an Indra's web to bring the creators into unity. The web will showcase the feathers at the juncture of vertical and horizontal threads, while a log will capture the stories. I hope the project will travel around the nation to inspire our original strengths of unity, diversity, and innovation in the sharing of the heritage of many, among us all. I hope the project turns a pat rhetoric of hate into a spirit of create.
Take a look at the photos and see if you are inspired to join in. There is no wrong way to create a feather except to not create one. A website on this project will be coming soon.