Path of the Friend
April 2nd, 2009
ESFAHAN, IRAN The Rally for Ahmadinejad This morning Rabia and I walked out of our small hotel in Esfahan, Iran, and were immediately swept along by a boisterous crowd filling the street—chanting, waving banners—all heading to Imam Square to hear President Ahmadinejad who was due to give a public address there within the hour. Loudspeakers […]
November 2nd, 2006
THE MIDDLE EAST Separation Four years ago at this time my wife and I were in Iraq, on the eve of the invasion. With the members of the Iraq Peace Team we were trying to bring to the attention of world media the enormous mistake the coming invasion was about to enact, and the agony […]
April 2nd, 2006
PALESTINE In the sixties the poet Gary Snyder advised, “Find your place on the planet and dig in.” I took his advice seriously, digging out roots to clear gardens, digging holes to build fences, digging trenches for foundations, drainage pipes, and septic systems. The view from the handle of my shovel helped me love each […]
October 30th, 2005
HARRAN, TURKEY It feels like the middle of nowhere – a rainy night, a poor neighborhood of scattered mud-brick and cement-block houses, puddles forming in the unpaved streets – but it was here in Harran, in what is now southeastern Turkey, that the religions of half of humanity had their beginning. In this place some […]
June 2nd, 2004
BRAZIL As I sit through this long plane ride back to the States I am flooded with images of my journey to Brazil. How do all these encounters add up? What is being served that is larger than my own desire to serve? * * * A large African-Brazilian woman sits across the table from […]
January 2nd, 2004
SHOWING UP: Notes on Action in the World Living a spiritual life has always included for me both an intensely inward, contemplative practice of liberation from my identifications and judgments, as well as the challenging aspect of outward service dedicated to justice in the world. No matter how much my own life over the years […]
January 2nd, 2004
CROSSING BORDERS . When the pilgrim’s road comes to an end and her goal is reached, she finds she has traveled only from herself to herself, and that the God whom she reached was all the while in her, around her, with her, and beside her. –Annonymous After these years of pilgrimage we are truly […]
November 24th, 2003
DAMASCUS, SYRIA Our pilgrimage to Syria left many traces on our hearts of realities deeper than headlines. In this letter I would like to describe three images that particularly touched me during the journey. These are images of people praying. I have always been drawn to the company of people at prayer – Hindu or […]
Subscribe to Letters from the Road.
