It was 10:50 PM when I returned to the monastery on my first night in Rome. Tired after over 36 hours of flights, buses, and a leisurely evening out, yet energised by the adrenalin of starting a month-long adventure, I shared the highlights of my evening with Sister Leopoldina, the elderly nun serving at the desk until 11PM. Diminutive in stature, but gigantic in spirit, we picked up the threads...
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I’m in Rome! I was so eager to settle in and see the sights that every delay sorting out transportation downtown required double patience. Finally, I found the non-descript door on the non-descript street of the non-descript monastery. The welcome, however, was wonderful! Sister Leopoldina, a native Spanish speaker, and I, a native English speaker, found a common language, French, in Italy. We...
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I’m on my way to Rome, the first stop on my September peace quest. I’ll spend the night in a monastery, then the next two nights in Assisi, to centre myself for the rest of the trip.
Walls are the metaphor for this trip. I’ve been fascinated by walls since my trip to Israel and Palestine last November. The separation wall made a big impact on me, and I’ve been dreaming of...
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Should I throw love over the wall instead of stones?
Chocolate kisses
Valentine hearts
Gifts on the strings of balloons?
Will you take the chocolates for stones
Respond with tear gas
Burn my eyes and nose?
I want to tear down this wall
Look into your eyes
And know you as friend, not enemy
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I want to dance at the wall in beautiful protestCast a vision of the future in its shadow today
We could hear the same music, dance to the same beatBut I couldn’t see you, our hands couldn’t meet
We could set up a webcam, make a window in the wallI’d rather you open it, I want to walk tallthrough the gate that encloses me now like a prisonLet this vision of the future shine...
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Modise Phekouyane used to be an angry, hateful young man who considered Nelson Mandela a traitor. Today, he embodies forgiveness and reconciliation so that neither he, nor his former oppressors, will remain victims of apartheid.
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I live in a cage with very prevalent wallsthat block me in and hide the sun
I rail at them, throw rocks and stonesMust you respond with bombs?
You hold the power of whether I can wash, or workWhether I can skype with my aunt, or visit the day of her birth
You say yes to my brother, and no to meMust you put my parents in such misery?
I rail at the wall with rocks and stonesYou hold the power...
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Father Michael Lapsley is one of my heroes. I met him in Toronto years ago, when my AfricaFiles friends invited him to share his experiences. I was deeply moved by this man's ability to forgive, while he faces reminders of the assassination attempt on his life constantly. The letter bomb that was intended to kill him took both his hands and one eye.
Father Lapsley has adapted very well physically...
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Today is Yom HaShoah, the annual day of remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust. This morning in Israel, two minutes of silence were observed throughout the country. Via video, I saw the streets and boardwalks that I traversed four months ago become strangely still. Listening to the sound of the siren, I imagined its wail, and our prayers, rising like the souls of the six million victims to...
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It's Maundy Thursday, the day Christians celebrate Jesus' last supper with his disciples. This is the meal during which Jesus took an ordinary loaf of bread, blessed it, and proclaimed it his broken body, given for them. They didn't know at the time that he was foretelling his death 12 hours later.
This morning, looking forward to Easter, I put on Christian music and logged into work. I should do...
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