Each week, Friendship and Faith shares a fresh, real-life story about cross-cultural relationships. Since our book, “Friendship and Faith,” was published in the spring of 2010—dozens of new stories by women have appeared in this ongoing website. We’d like to hear your story, too, and we’ve made that easier by providing the link (at right) labeled “We’d Like to Publish Your Story / How to share your story.”

This week, Dima El-Gamal—who is an accomplished civil engineer, a mother, a Muslim and an activist for diversity—shares her story. When most Americans hear the name of Syria, they recall headlines in recent years about international political conflict. But, Syria also is one of the oldest centers of civilization, home to a number of World Heritage Sites, including ancient Palmyra. The beautiful ruins, shown in today’s two photographs, make Palmyra a global destination for many. Here is Dima’s story …

FROM SYRIA TO AMERICA:
FRIENDSHIPS ARE KEYS TO PEACE

By Dima El-Gamal

I was born in Syria, but I fell in love with America before I hit 8 years old. Why you ask? Because it is the home of my beloved relatives from my Mom’s side, including my uncles and grandmother. My oldest uncle migrated to America in the early 1960’s when he was only 18 and the family followed, except Mom. My family migrated in the late 1970’s with me as an only child. I entered second grade in an elementary school in metro-Detroit and made many friends whose families had come from places like Greece, Italy, China, Iraq and Egypt. I had lots of Christian friends, but I knew very few Muslims.

Soon, my parents began to suspect that I might lose my cultural and religious connections, if we stayed here. So after one year in Michigan we went back to Syria to continue our lives. Dad was a CPA and Mom was a senior educator in the Syrian school system.

Even as we returned to Syria, though, my brilliant mother could see the sparks in my eyes and my enthusiasm about America, because “my beloved ones live there.”

Mom told me: “God willing, we will be back some day.” She followed through, too, by enrolling me in private schools run by Christian nuns who taught both English as well as Arabic. Mom also made sure that we kept coming back for summer vacations to visit family in Michigan.

EID AND CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS

In Syria I grew up in a huge social circle of Muslim and Christian friends from many backgrounds. I remember that I used to help decorate the school for both Eid and Christmas. During the time I was growing up, most Muslim girls did not wear a head covering, but my choice was to wear the hijab when I turned 15. At that time, Dad told me, “I think you are too young, but it is your choice. The only thing I ask of you is that, if you decide to take on this action, I want you to respect the hijab and adhere to the responsibility.” And, I did.

After high school, I went on to study civil engineering. Once I had earned my bachelor’s degree, I told my parents: “It is time. I want to go back.”

Amazingly, they agreed. In fact, they came with me to help hold our family together. Mom, Dad and my two brothers migrated to the United States in the early 1990s. Once again, I comfortably blended into America’s diversity and continued my studies until I completed a doctorate in civil engineering, got married and had two children of my own.

A HIJAB IN THE WORKPLACE

In the late 1990s, when I began working for an engineering firm, one of the department managers asked, “What is this on your head, Dima?”

“This is called the hijab,” I answered, “and it is part of my religion.”

With a smile, he said, “We will have you take it off in no time.”

I smiled back. “That is Mission Impossible.”

Of course, I was not happy when I heard such remarks, but it is the kind of exchange I experienced in the workplace, at first. Ten years later, the same person told me over lunch: “Dima, we have been working together for a long time, and I admire how you handle yourself, making sure that you adhere to your religion while you perfectly blend in.”

He had noticed that I never drink alcoholic beverages and he had realized that this also is part of Muslim life. “I choose not to drink, either,” he said, but our conversation did not stop there. He brought up the terrorist attacks on 9/11 in 2001 and told me that he admired the way I moved through such a difficult time while still trying to “clear the misconceptions from friends and colleagues.”

Of course, that is how I live my life. Never should hatred be spread in the name of Islam. And, more time passed. One day, this same person proudly told me about his son graduating from dental school—and he also proudly described how his son’s graduating class included two sisters who wore the hijab. It’s amazing how far these exchanges had come over the years.

PARENTING, PIANO LESSONS AND SHARING OUR LIVES

We must keep leading by example. People do change their attitudes. I have seen this happen so many times. A woman who also was a professional colleague over the years used to enjoy chatting with me, after our work was finished, about our children, our families and the values we share. We would talk about things that so many parents experience—like the kids’ piano lessons, holiday observances or TV shows we may choose to allow or restrict at home. As we did this, we began to see how much we shared.

I will never forget the day she said to me: “I’ve observed you through your work and through our conversations. I’ve learned your political views, how you raise your kids and your religious beliefs. I did not know a lot about Muslims before I met you, but I found out that the difference between your family and mine lies within a very thin gray line. We are not so different after all.”

As Muslims, I don’t think we need to be defensive. We need to lead by example. Friendships are built by celebrating our similarities. That is as true for Muslims as it is for all people. Making a good friend and learning about each other is a key to peace.

Please help us with Friendship and Faith!

As readers, we welcome you to contribute your own stories of cross-cultural friendship. (NOTE: There are helpful tips under “We’d like to publish your story”)

You can help in many ways! Purchase our book “Friendship and Faith,” which is packed with dozens of stories by women about their real-life experiences with cross-cultural friendships. Bookmark this page—or subscribe via the link in upper right. Share these stories with friends. (See links below.)

(Originally published at www.FriendshipAndFaith.com)

GOLDEN GATE PARK’S famous Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco, California.All this month, we are sharing fresh ideas to celebrate diversity for Thanksgiving. We started this series with a look back to 1621. It’s a simple yet powerful idea in our deeply divided America. Across southeast Michigan for Thanksgiving 2010, interfaith networks of men and women are organizing special community-wide interfaith Thanksgiving services. But, most of our online readers don’t live in Michigan—and we are encouraging you to join in this effort wherever you live, this year.

Thanksgiving for diversity!

Most weeks, this Friendship and Faith website publishes stories about friendships that cross cultural boundaries. In the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving 2010, we have been publishing women’s thoughts about why we are personally thankful for diversity. Why are YOU thankful for diversity? Email us at [email protected] with your answer to that question!

Reaching into nature for examples of diversity

Today’s photo shows one portion of Golden Gate’s Japanese Tea Garden, which is the oldest public Japanese garden in the United States—but this beautiful vision of natural diversity suffered its own tragic loss. Built for a San Francisco World’s Fair in 1894, the garden became a permanent public attraction in 1895. Makoto Hagiwara created the garden’s original design and his family painstakingly cared for it until 1942—when the entire family was forced into an internment camp. The garden was left largely untended and was all but lost to the world. In the late 1940s efforts were made to restore the garden. In the 1950s, it was expanded and dedicated to world peace.

WOMEN’S VOICES
IN THANKSGIVING FOR DIVERSITY

PADMA KUPPA: Homogeneity has never been the crucible of excellence or creativity. Different notes create beautiful music, different colors create beautiful pictures. Immigrants have brought to America a variety of cultures, languages, tastes, and ideas that enrich our understanding; America’s physical landscape makes for amazing lyrics (spacious skies, amber waves of grain, purple mountain majesties, and the fruited plain) … As I strive to promote pluralism and inclusiveness through my work with Troy-area Interfaith Group, WISDOM and the Hindu American Foundation, I am thankful for the diversity of viewpoints I encounter and the difficult dialogues we undertake, which help me become a more compassionate and empathetic human being. padmakuppa.blogspot.com

RAMAN SINGH: I am thankful for Diversity because it gives me an opportunity to see and feel the Divine in so many different people, faiths and ideas. I have been uplifted and inspired by the all the people I have met who are involved in celebrating Diversity. It deepens my spiritual connection with the rest of creation and reminds me to be thankful for the variety and bounty of God’s gifts to us. Diversity is truly Divine.

MOTOKO HUTHWAITE: The reasons I am thankful for diversity go back a long way. Born in Boston, Mass., of Japanese parents, my earliest memory of diversity goes back to when I was three in nursery school. I was borrowed by another nursery school to play with their children. I was dimly aware that being Japanese was a unique distinction and a highly favorable one.
Every few years my brother and I were taken to Japan by my mother to meet grandparents, aunts, uncles and a zillion cousins. Because we were practically the only Japanese family in the Boston area, our house was always filled with Japanese students from nearby colleges so my brother and I spoke and understood Japanese, but our reading and writing left much to be desired. Consequently, when we went to Japan, I was always enrolled in the English-speaking International School of the Sacred Heart Convent in Tokyo. There, my classmates were either children of diplomats, or businessmen who had served abroad, or Eurasians. My best friend was half German and half Japanese. Another one was half Swiss and half Japanese. I grew up in a diverse culture.
During World War II, it was not diversity of race and culture that defined me but being the enemy as a Japanese in America when Pearl Harbor was attacked, and later as an American in Japan after going to Japan on the exchange ship the Gripsholm.
Perhaps the happiest time of my life was when I taught at the American School in Japan after college. There were 34 nationalities in the school and, when I taught a fourth grade class or a high school English class, there would be different races, cultures, and faiths. We got along well and saw each other as individuals, not stereotyped by race or ethnic background or faith.
Some thirty years later, when I came to Detroit to enter the doctoral program at Wayne State, I went church hunting and fell in love with Fort Street Presbyterian Church, not only because of its magnificent architecture and fine classical music, but because of its diversity—not only by race and ethnic background, but economically, socially, theologically, generationally. For one Christmas pageant, Kevin, who played Joseph, happened to be black. Laura, who was Mary, happened to be white. At Fort Street, it was perfectly natural.

When I first attended a World Sabbath service, then became involved with WISDOM and started speaking on the Five Women Five Journeys panels, I felt completely at home. I am thankful for diversity because I always find there is more that unites us than divides us.
Like a bouquet of flowers, I enjoy the different colors. Like the instruments of the orchestra, I love the harmony made by different instruments. I owe my Muslim friends a new appreciation for the importance of regular prayer, regular charity, and assurance of the hereafter. I owe my Jewish friends a stronger assurance that God is our Refuge and Strength and, when I am still, I know He is God. I owe my Hindu friends a new realization that Divinity is present in every object, all creatures, every individual. And so it goes. I am thankful for diversity that enriches and enlarges my faith. Amen and amen.

Please help us with Friendship and Faith!

As readers, we welcome you to contribute your own stories of cross-cultural friendship. (NOTE: There are helpful tips under “We’d like to publish your story”)

You can help in many ways! Purchase our book “Friendship and Faith,” which is packed with dozens of stories by women about their real-life experiences with cross-cultural friendships. Bookmark this page—or subscribe via the link in upper right. Share these stories with friends. (See links below.)

(Originally published at www.FriendshipAndFaith.com)

 

All this month, we are sharing fresh ideas to celebrate diversity for Thanksgiving. We started this series with a look back to 1621. Today, we’re sharing another great idea you can try wherever you live.

Shop together for diversity

Think about this! Community leaders across the U.S. encourage diversity through events such as work projects, interfaith worship services, seminars and educational programs. So, how about shopping together as a way to appreciate diversity?

How WISDOM is partnering with SAKS in metro-Detroit

Here is how we’re doing this. Consider adapting this idea in your town …

The key person behind our local effort is Brenda Rosenberg, the WISDOM member who originally thought of producing a book together as one way to celebrate diversity. After a year of planning and contributions from dozens of women, the result of that idea is “Friendship and Faith”—the book we hope you’ll purchase to help us continue our peacemaking efforts. The book—and this ongoing website full of fresh stories by women—are two of our best ideas to encourage diversity.

Now, we’re adding another idea: shopping.

How did we come up with this idea? Well, Brenda has had more than one vocation. These days, she devotes her life to peacemaking through WISDOM and a number of other groups. But, for years, she was a nationally known fashion executive, making decisions about each season’s new styles for major department stores coast to coast. In the early days of her retail career, she was Fashion Director for Saks Fifth Avenue Detroit. When the Somerset Collection Saks store opened, Brenda worked around the clock perfecting displays throughout that new store.

“My roots are deep at Saks Fifth Avenue,” Brenda says as she explains why she is launching this latest idea at the Saks Somerset store. “When this store opened in Troy, I will always remember how I worked throughout the night putting the finishing touches on the store displays and mannequins, going home at 7:00 a.m. to shower and dress—then running back in 4-inch heels to cut the ribbon.” Some of the women Brenda worked with, years ago, are still a part of the Saks staff. “So, Saks has always felt like a second home to me,” she says.

Our Thursday, November 18, event is hosted at the Saks Somerset store in Troy, Michigan. Think about this idea: Shopping is an activity enjoyed by millions—and malls are places where we often rub shoulders with diverse cross-sections of our communities. Please, adapt this idea yourself!

If you live in Michigan, please join us, here are details:

We are asking $30 to attend this event, which includes a special program, a copy of our book—and a 15-percent-off coupon for shopping at Saks that evening. The evening begins at 5 p.m. with a social time and refreshments. At 6 p.m., some of the women involved in “Friendship and Faith” will share their stories and respond to questions. Then, from 7 to 9 p.m., we invite the women (and men) who are attending to use their coupons and enjoy shopping together. We meet new people, share our stories, spread the message of WISDOM through our book—and enjoy simply shopping and talking as friends.

If you live elsewhere and plan a shopping-for-diversity event:

Let us know! Email us at [email protected]

Please help us with Friendship and Faith!

As readers, we welcome you to contribute your own stories of cross-cultural friendship. (NOTE: There are helpful tips under “We’d like to publish your story”)

You can help in many ways! Purchase our book “Friendship and Faith,” which is packed with dozens of stories by women about their real-life experiences with cross-cultural friendships. Bookmark this page—or subscribe via the link in upper right. Share these stories with friends. (See links below.)

(Originally published at www.FriendshipAndFaith.com)

AUTUMN HARVEST of corn in Peru shows a great diversity of colors. Photo from Wikimedia Commons.This year, many people are welcoming our invitation to express Thanksgiving for diversity! It’s a simple yet powerful idea in our deeply divided America. Across southeast Michigan for Thanksgiving 2010, interfaith networks of men and women are organizing special community-wide interfaith Thanksgiving services. But, most of our online readers don’t live in Michigan—and we are encouraging you to join in this effort wherever you live, this year.

Thanksgiving for diversity!

Most weeks, this Friendship and Faith website publishes stories about friendships that cross cultural boundaries. For a few weeks, in preparation for Thanksgiving 2010, we are going to publish women’s thoughts about why we are personally thankful for diversity. Why are YOU thankful for diversity? Email us at [email protected] with your answer to that question!

Nature loves diversity, write two women: one Jewish; one Muslim

Sheri Terebelo Schiff writes:

Diversity is like a big and tasty fruit salad. Each fruit retains its own texture, color, size, shape, and taste while all blending into a tasty enticing salad. Diversity means that many of us are different from each other in how we live, worship, eat, believe and interact with the world—but in the long run, our similarities are more pronounced than those differences. Without diversity, would we really be all the same? Would the sameness bring boredom? Diversity is the richness of the human spirit and the interaction of those differences to make this world a better place for all of us to live in.

Gigi Salka writes:

Diversity is all around us. Everywhere you look no two apples are the same, no two trees are the same, no two birds are the same. We all live in a diverse world that enlightens and engages us. It is always fun to try a new restaurant or go somewhere new for vacation; it is the excitement of learning something new. The diversity in our communities is just as exciting. I am always delighted to learn about a new religious tradition, or try new food, or learn about someone’s culture. Our differences are not so different, but rather different manifestations of the same. We all love our familes, treasure our friends, and work tirelessly for a better future for our children. Our goals are similar although we may approach them in diverse ways. Diversity strengthens a community, as people from diverse backgrounds come together they create a new and exciting change.

Please help us with Friendship and Faith!

As readers, we welcome you to contribute your own stories of cross-cultural friendship. (NOTE: There are helpful tips under “We’d like to publish your story”)

You can help in many ways! Purchase our book “Friendship and Faith,” which is packed with dozens of stories by women about their real-life experiences with cross-cultural friendships. Bookmark this page—or subscribe via the link in upper right. Share these stories with friends. (See links below.)

(Originally published at www.FriendshipAndFaith.com)

This year, let’s express Thanksgiving for diversity! It’s a simple yet powerful—and timely—idea in our deeply divided America. Plus, the idea of celebrating diversity at Thanksgiving is in keeping with the “real” origins of our American holiday.

Who doesn’t love Thanksgiving? The historical institution, Plimouth Plantation in Massachusetts, has become America’s leading authority on that “first” Thanksgiving in 1621. Each year, thousands of visitors tour the Plimouth exhibition on Thanksgiving, which opened in 2002. The Plantation staff describes the origins of Thanksgiving this way: “By the English calendar it was autumn 1621. For the Native Wampanoag it was Keepunumuk, the time of the harvest. In a small colony on the edge of the sea, more than 90 Wampanoag people shared food with 52 English people. Over the centuries, the story of this gathering was lost, recovered, transformed and retold again. More than 200 years after it occurred, this three-day celebration would suddenly become known as the ‘First Thanksgiving,’ an American myth in many ways and, much later, what would become one of America’s most beloved holidays was born!”

Across southeast Michigan for Thanksgiving 2010, interfaith networks of men and women are organizing special community-wide interfaith Thanksgiving services. But, most of our online readers don’t live in Michigan—and we are encouraging you to join in this effort wherever you live, this year.

Thanksgiving for diversity!

Most weeks, this Friendship and Faith website publishes stories about friendships that cross cultural boundaries. For a few weeks, in preparation for Thanksgiving 2010, we are going to publish women’s thoughts about why we are personally thankful for diversity.

Why are YOU thankful for diversity?

Email us at [email protected] with your answer to that question!

Judy Lipson answers the question this way:
”Diversity allows for differences among people, which is very good. It helps me to know what other options there are. Just because I don’t know it, and live it, doesn’t mean that there might not be value for others—even for me.”

Send in your response to the question!

WISDOM co-founder Gail Katz answered the question this way: “I’m very thankful for diversity because it has enriched my life and expanded my world. Coming from a childhood where I felt like the ‘other,’ where my ‘diversity’ was a negative for me—now, I get a spiritual high every time I interact with someone from a different faith tradition, race, or culture. Turning that negative into such a wonderful positive has been a life force for me—from my career teaching English as a Second Language to immigrant students to my middle school program entitled Religious Diversity Journeys, and now with WISDOM, the InterFaith Leadership Council, the Jewish/Chaldean Social Action Endeavor, and the World Sabbath as exciting initiatives in diversity. Embracing diversity has changed my life, and has shown me a very wonderful and spiritual path back to my own roots that I rejected as a child. I am VERY thankful for the diversity in this world—a world that is vibrant and ever-changing because of interfaith, intercultural connections and interactions. I can’t imagine living in a world where we were all the same faith—the same race—and celebrated all our holidays and traditions in the same way. That kind of homogenized world would lose the world’s true sparkle!!”

Please help us with Friendship and Faith!

As readers, we welcome you to contribute your own stories of cross-cultural friendship. (NOTE: There are helpful tips under “We’d like to publish your story”)

You can help in many ways! Purchase our book “Friendship and Faith,” which is packed with dozens of stories by women about their real-life experiences with cross-cultural friendships. Bookmark this page—or subscribe via the link in upper right. Share these stories with friends. (See links below.)

(Originally published at www.FriendshipAndFaith.com)

Our weekly series continues with a deeply personal story of two friends—one Jewish and one Muslim. Their friendship grew through the years, surviving even a time of painful separation, until … Well, read the story, which was forwarded to us by WISDOM, president and co-founder Gail Katz. WISDOM is the women’s group responsible for our book, “Friendship and Faith,” and this ongoing series of weekly stories. (Please, scroll down on this page to enjoy more stories!) This story was written by Roz’s husband, Dan.

This is the story of Roz and Mirvat, two friends …

Roz had surgery for a rare pituitary tumor and, later, was sent to Boston in the early 1990s for special medical treatment—proton-beam radiation—and it required that she spend the summer of 1991 in Boston. She did so; and afterward she needed to make regular visits to Boston for follow-up examinations by the doctor in charge, Norbert Liebsch. As her prognosis improved, the interval between the follow-ups increased.

But, Roz, always smiling and ever the optimist about these things, greatly impressed Dr. Liebsch—who began to ask her, during these follow-up visits, to give a little pep-talk to incoming patients. One time she spoke to an entire family who were spending the summer in Boston while their 10-year-old son received these special radiation treatments.

It was a great blessing for me, as Roz’s husband, to see how this glum group began to relax and appear at ease as Roz spoke to them about her summer in Boston a few years earlier for these special radiation treatments.

But, Mirvat was a more difficult case. She had already had the surgery twice and this was not a happy time for her and her family, husband and four young children, who also were spending their summer in Boston. Dr. Liebsch asked Roz to speak to them and she did.

Not only did she greatly alleviate their tension and concerns but she was so extremely caring of Mirvat that they developed a mother-daughter relationship, which lasted until Roz died in May of 2008.

Now, Roz was Jewish and Mirvat is Muslim so the relationship took on a special quality. Although Roz and Mirvat met in Boston, Mirvat lives in the Dearborn area of Michigan, which is internationally known for its large Muslim population.

In addition to phone and email communications, Roz quite often went down to Dearborn to lunch with Mirvat and her children. As well, Mirvat and her family visited us in Farmington Hills. This friendship continued for over ten years. After a while, Mirvat’s children began calling Roz “grandma” in Arabic. And, I remember several times Roz advising Mirvat on her return to college.

During the 2006 Lebanon War, Roz did not hear from Mirvat and I remember her asking me if she should call or if I thought maybe Mirvat was put off by the war. Frankly, I didn’t know what to say and I don’t think Roz called Mirvat. It was, I believe, a sad time for both of them.

Jews and Muslims share a religious custom at the end of life: Both communities tend to hold funerals quickly after a death. But, the morning of Roz’s funeral, our phone rang. One of my daughters answered it and she later told me that there was an weeping woman on the phone. It was Mirvat who had just read Roz’s obituary in the morning paper and was distraught. Although they had not been in touch during Roz’s illness—over a year-and-a-half—the bond of friendship was still there.

Mirvat, her husband and one of her sons attended Roz’s funeral and the rabbi who gave the eulogy noted Mirvat’s presence and their relationship. So, it is heart-warming that Roz and Mirvat were able to overcome the terrible divide that exists between our peoples. Roz would have had a beautiful smile if she could have learned that Mirvat was so distraught at her passing and had attended her funeral.

Please help us with Friendship and Faith!

As readers, we welcome you to contribute your own stories of cross-cultural friendship. (NOTE: There are helpful tips under “We’d like to publish your story”)

You can help in many ways! Purchase our book “Friendship and Faith,” which is packed with dozens of stories by women about their real-life experiences with cross-cultural friendships. Bookmark this page—or subscribe via the link in upper right. Share these stories with friends. (See links below.)

(Originally published at www.FriendshipAndFaith.com)

 

Labyrinth at Northminster Presbyterian Church in Troy, MichiganOur weekly series continues with a wonderfully autumn-themed idea: Walking an outdoor labyrinth with friends, especially friends of another faith or culture. The photo above was taken in springtime of the beautiful new labyrinth described in today’s story. But imagine the autumn colors emerging around outdoor labyrinths in October. Envision taking a bracing fall walk on a crisp morning—with friends.

This story was written by Gail Katz, a co-founder and the current head of WISDOM, the women’s group behind our book, “Friendship and Faith,” and this ongoing series of weekly stories. (Please, scroll down on this page to enjoy more stories!)

This is Gail’s story …

Three WISDOM women came together to walk the interfaith Labyrinth behind the Northminster Presbyterian Church in Troy, Michigan. This labyrinth first came onto my radar screen when I was a student in the annual World Views Seminar at the University of Michigan-Dearborn during the summer of 2008. My class of 40-some students was brought by bus to the Labyrinth, and, after learning the history of this interfaith endeavor, we walked the circular patterns together.

Walking around in circles with 40 other people at the same time was less than ideal. I was mostly concerned with not bumping into the person on the path close to me. But the following October my friends Gigi (a Muslim), Judy (a Christian) and I (a Jew), came together at the site to share this outdoor adventure. We wanted to find out whether we were able to listen to our own intuition and stretch our souls to rise to the level of a spiritual experience.

The pastor of the Northminster Presbyterian Church, the Rev. Charlotte Sommers, spent about 20 minutes with us, explaining the meaning of the Labyrinth. It’s an ancient pattern, dating back thousands of years. Later, labyrinths were built into the floors of great European cathedrals. We learned how this pattern is not a puzzle to be solved, like a maze, but a continuous, winding path destined to help clarify one’s thoughts.

Charlotte explained three stages of walking:

1. Release: As you enter and walk toward the center, you should release all that you need to let go of—to try to get rid of the baggage you might be carrying around within you.
2. Receive: When you reach the center, you should be fully aware of the present moment and receive what the Divine wants to give you as you meditate, pray, and seek clarity.
3. Reunite: As you leave the center, you need to reunite with the world and capture what you discovered in the center of your journey.

Judy, Gigi and I were about to see if walking the Northminster Labyrinth was going to feel more like a solitary experience or a community one—as the three of us followed the brick path around and around behind the church. The day was crisp and chilly. The sun alternated with clouds, and when the sun disappeared at times, I shivered inside my coat, seeking warmth.

On the way into the Labyrinth, I was initially focused on my two other companions and where they were physically in relation to myself. Was I going to get to the center first? Would I pass them as we circled around together? Would I focus on their facial expressions and try to discern what they were experiencing?

But as I began to walk and take deep breaths of cold air, I forgot about my friends and focused on my own life and the baggage that I carried inside. How could I use this experience to lighten my load? How could I make peace with the fact that I don’t have the power to fix my problems, that I need to learn to let go? I began to think of all the problems in my life that I couldn’t fix! And, beyond my own life, how can I hope to fix our broken economy—and all those who are suffering anxiety because of that enormous problem?

Breathing in and breathing out, I focused on my journey, one step at a time—and slowly I felt some of the heaviness begin to lift from my shoulders. When I got to the center of the Labyrinth, I stood there with my eyes closed, and let the sun fall on my face.

Suddenly, I heard the twittering of the birds in the trees all around me, and the voices of the children in the church’s pre-school laughing and crying and calling out to one another. I felt a sense of peace—my tense muscles eased, and my breathing slowed down.The center of this Labyrinth became more than just a destination, but a new beginning.

As I left the center and wound my way back out again, I thought less about my anxiety, my tension, my burdens. What was prominent in my thoughts was reuniting with the outside world to make some difference—to bring about an ounce of peace, a drop of sunshine, a grain of respect and understanding between people who might harbor fears of “the other.”

I was so lucky to have a roof over my head and food on my table during these very difficult times. I gave thanks for all of the goodness, and felt re-energized to tackle the challenges. Gigi, Judy and I hugged each other at the end of our journey. We quietly walked back into the church and opened our bag lunches while we compared the thoughts that we harbored going into the Labyrinth, the epiphanies we had upon reaching the center, and the feelings that occurred as we found our way out again.

Our journey became a treasured opportunity of interfaith sharing and reinforcement of the bonds that we three women have developed as part of the women’s organization known as WISDOM.

Please help us with Friendship and Faith!

As readers, we welcome you to contribute your own stories of cross-cultural friendship. (NOTE: There are helpful tips under “We’d like to publish your story”)

You can help in many ways! Purchase our book “Friendship and Faith,” which is packed with dozens of stories by women about their real-life experiences with cross-cultural friendships. Bookmark this page—or subscribe via the link in upper right. Share these stories with friends. (See links below.)

(Originally published at www.FriendshipAndFaith.com)