No doubt an occasion to be observed rather than celebrated. Consider: Patti and I are going to be moving to day and tomorrow. What makes this different from all our many other moves is that we will be leaving 95 to 98 percent of the things, books, pictures, clothing, furniture, garden tools, inherited tools. Kitchen tools....behind, never to be recovered. We will relocate about a 45 minute drive from current location.and will be going up 1200 feet to a 1700 foot elevation. We will live among strangers who speak our language. Share most all of our culture. Having jettison the objects of our past lives we will retain 98 percent of our culture. I will be in constant contact with our friends by way of Internet. So despite some austerity involved in reducing our foot print upon the Earth by moving into a 28 foot trailer, We will be at home in our new location. We will understand the people and speak a common language Will understand the currency. If we are in trouble we know where to go to get help. We are not leaving the nation that gave us a life, the language that expressed our hearts to one another. We will not be isolated by all we have lost. We will not be dragging and carrying half naked children who cry out to us in hunger. We will not be herded crowded and compressed into a barbed wired compound that has no clearly marked exit. We, the fortunate ones, surrounded by family, friends and countrymen, we will not fear tomorrow. So as we pack, separate and discard, making a division between past and future reclaiming our memories from the objects we entrusted our recollections to. it comes to us like a wave of disorganized feelings ,We are the fortunate ones. Our nation still surround and reassures us of our belonging. We will be in a position to know of and observe International Refugee Day. We will not be hungry, cold nor alone. We will not be despised nor misunderstood. We will not be cheated because we don't understand the currency. We will not be discarded by those who do not understand us or the way we speak. Having moved we will still be home. Few are the refugees that ever find home again. I write in memoriam of those who left home never to return, but wander this world as strangers among their brothers. I write to recall the journey of our mothers and fathers who gave up everything to give us a new life, who dared all to make us safe... So we would not have to live like refugees. May Haven guide their every tired step and lead them to my home that I might come to know them who walk this world without a place to call their own. Peace comes to those who give peace to others.
