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It was 65 years ago when Auschwitz Concentration Camp was liberated. Just two weeks earlier, my father in law's number had been called to enter the gas chamber, and while inside in the outer chamber, he was recognized by someone from his village. He was told in a whisper, that when his number was called again, not to answer, and instead pick up a broom in the corner, turn away, and sweep like his life depended on it...because it did.
My mother-in-law survived a forced labor camp, and Torn Threads is the story of her survival with her sister.
A Canadian reunification program brought my husband and his family to Canada, and it was not until years later, that he finally became a Canadian citizen instead of a displaced person.
They all could have perished, like so many more who came before and after them, fleeing the often nameless and faceless insanity of political, religious and natural disasters. Despite saying "Never Again" we say it over and over again...
I have spent time over the last two years in Albania, Kosovo, Cambodia, Vietnam, Israel, the Gaza Strip, Egypt and even learned from first hand accounts of the Hawaiians who like other indigenous cultures, were not allowed to practice their language, customs and had their land taken away.
I spent last week with Regina Waldman of JIMENA, Jews Indigenous to (the) Middle East and North Africa. They are another almost one million "forgotten refugees", foirced out of their homes for generations. They are forgotten, because they have been largely integrated into other countries.
The common thread of hope, for these places, and their people is that a single act of kindness and compassion can save lives, and give shattered ones meaning again. We must help people in Haiti, Darfur, New Orleans, to "forgive, but not forget". We never know when WE will have to rely on the kindness of strangers.
To those who say, exceptions should not be made in the face of humanitarian crisis, for fear we will let someone slip in who may have even escaped from prison, I understand that given the right opportunity, it is possible to rise above past circumstances, when offered a meaningful second chance.
It is why, after almost 39 years living in Canada, that I am proud to become a Canadian citizen this year.
I am eternally thankful for each individual who "takes responsibility, when there is a knock on their door", because it is the only way to ensure we will all have the ability not just to survive, but thrive. The ability to "make a difference in the world every day" is within all of us.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
Tuesday Evening in Vancouver, Regina Waldman of JIMENA,
"It's a small world, after all, it's a small, small world", and I love its synchronicity.
These words were ringing in my ears as I opened one of the myriad of emails in my inbox as I was trying to catch up since returning home. There, was an invitation to hear Regina Waldman speak and show a movie on January 19th at the King David School in Vancouver. Regina is the co-founder of JIMENA, "Jews, Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa". I have been fascinated with her story and the organization since being put in touch with her through Retired Israeli Ambassador Asher Naim, who like Ms Waldman, was born in Tripoli, Libya. Ambassador Naim, after his service to Israel in helping to get the Russian Jews to Israel through Finland, helping to get Zionism is Racism removed from the UN Charter and was ambassador to Ethiopia at the time of Operation Solomon, now works tirelessly to help the Ethiopian Beta Israel or "Falashan" Jews who emigrated to Israel. When he suggested we speak months ago, neither of us imagined we would meet in Vancouver instead of Ethiopia or San Francisco, where she lives.
Born in Libya in 1948, Gina and her family were forced to flee her home country in 1967 with only the clothes on their back and $20.Born in Tripoli to a family that had lived in Libya for centuries, she was persecuted, nearly murdered and brutally expelled from her homeland in 1967, all because she was a Jew.She speaks of how she grew up in a hate-filled country, including her own school.As a young child she recalls the adversity she faced in going to school in an Arabic country.
It was the end of the Six-Day War; from 1948 to 1970, nearly a million Jews were forced to flee their homes in Arab lands.
As her family fled on a bus to the airport, the driver attempted to set the bus aflame and murder all the passengers.
After settling in America, Bublil became a leading activist in the Soviet Jewry movement, for which she received the Martin Luther King, Jr. Humanitarian Award. As director of the Bay Area Council for Soviet Jewry, Waldman was instrumental in winning freedom for thousands of Soviet Jews like Natan Sharansky. She has since also been instrumental in helping the Jews of Chile and Argentina.
In March 2008 she testified at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva about the Jewish refugees from Arab countries.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnwmzCt99LQ
Using her personal story, she sheds light on the unknown history of the “Forgotten Refugees:” She recently testified before Congress on the plight of the nearly one million Jews who were made refugees from the Arab Countries.
Together with Joseph Abdel Wahed, Waldman founded JIMENA (Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa) to bear witness to the suffering of other Jewish refugees from Arab lands.
See you at 7pm at King David School in Oakridge. For more information contact me randi@passionatetravel.com
These words were ringing in my ears as I opened one of the myriad of emails in my inbox as I was trying to catch up since returning home. There, was an invitation to hear Regina Waldman speak and show a movie on January 19th at the King David School in Vancouver. Regina is the co-founder of JIMENA, "Jews, Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa". I have been fascinated with her story and the organization since being put in touch with her through Retired Israeli Ambassador Asher Naim, who like Ms Waldman, was born in Tripoli, Libya. Ambassador Naim, after his service to Israel in helping to get the Russian Jews to Israel through Finland, helping to get Zionism is Racism removed from the UN Charter and was ambassador to Ethiopia at the time of Operation Solomon, now works tirelessly to help the Ethiopian Beta Israel or "Falashan" Jews who emigrated to Israel. When he suggested we speak months ago, neither of us imagined we would meet in Vancouver instead of Ethiopia or San Francisco, where she lives.
Born in Libya in 1948, Gina and her family were forced to flee her home country in 1967 with only the clothes on their back and $20.Born in Tripoli to a family that had lived in Libya for centuries, she was persecuted, nearly murdered and brutally expelled from her homeland in 1967, all because she was a Jew.She speaks of how she grew up in a hate-filled country, including her own school.As a young child she recalls the adversity she faced in going to school in an Arabic country.
It was the end of the Six-Day War; from 1948 to 1970, nearly a million Jews were forced to flee their homes in Arab lands.
As her family fled on a bus to the airport, the driver attempted to set the bus aflame and murder all the passengers.
After settling in America, Bublil became a leading activist in the Soviet Jewry movement, for which she received the Martin Luther King, Jr. Humanitarian Award. As director of the Bay Area Council for Soviet Jewry, Waldman was instrumental in winning freedom for thousands of Soviet Jews like Natan Sharansky. She has since also been instrumental in helping the Jews of Chile and Argentina.
In March 2008 she testified at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva about the Jewish refugees from Arab countries.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnwmzCt99LQ
Using her personal story, she sheds light on the unknown history of the “Forgotten Refugees:” She recently testified before Congress on the plight of the nearly one million Jews who were made refugees from the Arab Countries.
Together with Joseph Abdel Wahed, Waldman founded JIMENA (Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa) to bear witness to the suffering of other Jewish refugees from Arab lands.
See you at 7pm at King David School in Oakridge. For more information contact me randi@passionatetravel.com
Friday, January 15, 2010
Aloha 2010
Sitting at the computer, back at home in Vancouver, with the Olympic preparations literally at my doorstep, it does not seem possible that were on the Big Island for just two weeks and that it is now 2010! So much has been accomplished in such a short time, both simply enjoying the quiet beauty and the vibrancy of the Big Island and especially the remarkable people who call this home and those drawn to its amazing spiritual and recouperative properties as well as its absolutely authentic, majestic quiet beauty and the options for activities that thrill us and provide us with the rush of adreneline through sheer excitement.
I was able to share a remarkable visit back to Waipio Valley and my first time to the 14,000 foot summit of Mauna Kea with some of the most special people on earth. The views from the summit with the shock of temperature (no matter how well prepared you think you are) almost defy description. The colors and special prayers given there will always remain close in my heart.
Forgetting an offering, amazing entrepreneur and energy healer, Maxima, inadvertently offered her glasses, which really became a symbol for our project here on the island...opening our hearts to see instead of just using your eyes. Luna eventually lost his headset, which was subsequently found, run over. It brought further understanding that we must listen and pay attention to the still, small voice rather than the loud overlay that sometimes amplifies things that seem more pressing or important.
It was ironic that about twenty years earlier, we were some of the first people allowed to walk on the still warm,freshly erupted lavafields at the volcano. January 3, when we went to the Kalapana observation area, the lava flow had inexplicably stopped that very morning, with my husband carrying 35 pounds of camera equipment, and with me with my own collection of media paraphernalia left with the words of incredulity of the professional photographers at the inexplicable lack of any flow. We all shook our heads at the fickleness of Madame Pele, with whom I had a powerful encounter just a scant two months earlier. To add to the mystery, not understanding fully, several people instinctively new that "Madam Pele was done, and moving".
And move she did, when the day before we left, we were told that a small flow appeared about 11 miles from the visitor viewing area, too far out to be seen other than by helicopter or boat.
During our drive to Hilo and the volcano, we passed so many changes of topography, climate and terrain, it caused the altimeter on Sam's watch to look like a roller coaster. Driving past the volcano, we encountered even more sulfuric air than I had experienced my previous time at the volcano. Our friend, who had asthma when younger, was definitely affected, and many of the areas in Volcano National Park were closed to visitors due to health concerns. These two issues are very important to take into consideration when planning a visit to the park, especially if anyone in your group has any kind of breathing issues or is pregnant, or very young. We were eventually able to go to the caldera and to the Thurston Lava Tubes before we left, but did not get to hike, and explore or get the photographs we wanted.
While the waves prevented our end of the trip snorkeling on the Kona side, it instead provided us with great opportunities to watch the magnificent whales at play, spouting and diving offshore. It also gave us lots of great photos, albeit sans lava, but equally powerful memories to cherish. We had already swum respectfully close to spinning dolphins and sea turtles in the ocean sans a swim with the dolphins or other program...they just showed up, like we did.
To me, it was another clue about managing expectations. Experiences start and end in our hearts and heads, and even more so, how we interpret (or some others would say rationalize)them. Labels about good and bad, timeliness, and expected purpose are just external manifestations of our reactions to the events around us that we often have no control over. What we do control 100 percent is our ability to control our own personal reactions and actions around any news or specific events (like what is happening now in Haiti) and non events like a lack of a desired action or event on the part of others.
My time on the island also confirmed my profound belief that travel amplifies the ability of the right people showing up in your life at the right time, even though, at the time, we may not always appreciate or understand why without the perspective of time and insight. Like in Kosovo, when working on wonderful humanitarian story, a film project became possible, and with no preplanning, the right people just showed up, each person adding their own perspective and became a link in the chain towards telling a remarkable story. It was the same feeling standing in line at the airport in Albania, and meeting someone who would be instrumental in helping get Jared and my book on diabetes published around the world. Here in Hawaii, I was able to see real growth of self pride in local heritage and locally based solutions, especially in the field of wellness, and the Hawaiian values of Ho'oponopono, similar in many ways to the Albanian concept of Besa-"keeping the promise". I sometimes shake my head at the far flung destinations that my passions carry me, while marveling at the unlikely similarities of cultures.
In Hawaiian, Ho'oponopono means "to make right". Essentially, it means to make it right with those who came before you (our positive inherited values), or to make right with the people with whom you have relationships (ideally everyone in the world). They call this the Hawaiian Code of Forgiveness, and it's a very important concept, because when we forgive others, we are also forgiving ourselves.
Simply put the process of Ho'oponopono involves the following steps:
1.Bring to mind anyone with whom you do not feel total alignment or support, etc.
2.In your mind's eye, construct a small stage below you
3.Imagine an infinite source of love and healing flowing from a source above the top of your head (from your Higher Self), and open up the top of your head, and let the source of love and healing flow down inside your body, fill up the body, and overflow out your heart to heal up the person on the stage. Be sure it is all right for you to heal the person and that they accept the healing.
4.When the healing is complete, have a discussion with the person and forgive them, and have them forgive you.
5.Next, let go of the person, and see them floating away. As they do, cut the aka cord that connects the two of you (if appropriate). If you are healing in a current primary relationship, then assimilate the person inside you.
6.Do this with every person in your life with whom you are incomplete, or not aligned.
The final test is, can you see the person or think of them without feeling any negative emotions. If you do feel negative emotions when you do, then do the process again.
I believe this process can be practiced daily by saying these few simple, but powerful words... I love you, I forgive you, Thank You. These words are the basis for self esteem, forgiveness and ultimately the core values we need to thrive and not just survive in this world-LOVE and GRATITUDE.
I guess than brings me back to the theme that I believe is continuing and amplifying for 2010. Through travel, we open ourselves us to a universe of new people and experiences. We must know from a core level that we are able to make a significant and positive difference in the world-pretty much every day. Once we understand that we are all inextricably linked together, and that we each hold a different key to the mystery of life-and quality of life, which every single person born onto this earth deserves, we can indeed serve as a rainbow bridge in 2010 and beyond.
I hope you will also share your thoughts and feelings, as well as the experiences that travel has brought to your perspective and committment to be part of the solution. May we all find inside ourselves, our Places of Refuge where we can be unconditionally sheltered and turn our hearts and lives into the same for others.
Make 2010 a time when you are consciously adding years to your life and life to your years.
I was able to share a remarkable visit back to Waipio Valley and my first time to the 14,000 foot summit of Mauna Kea with some of the most special people on earth. The views from the summit with the shock of temperature (no matter how well prepared you think you are) almost defy description. The colors and special prayers given there will always remain close in my heart.
Forgetting an offering, amazing entrepreneur and energy healer, Maxima, inadvertently offered her glasses, which really became a symbol for our project here on the island...opening our hearts to see instead of just using your eyes. Luna eventually lost his headset, which was subsequently found, run over. It brought further understanding that we must listen and pay attention to the still, small voice rather than the loud overlay that sometimes amplifies things that seem more pressing or important.
It was ironic that about twenty years earlier, we were some of the first people allowed to walk on the still warm,freshly erupted lavafields at the volcano. January 3, when we went to the Kalapana observation area, the lava flow had inexplicably stopped that very morning, with my husband carrying 35 pounds of camera equipment, and with me with my own collection of media paraphernalia left with the words of incredulity of the professional photographers at the inexplicable lack of any flow. We all shook our heads at the fickleness of Madame Pele, with whom I had a powerful encounter just a scant two months earlier. To add to the mystery, not understanding fully, several people instinctively new that "Madam Pele was done, and moving".
And move she did, when the day before we left, we were told that a small flow appeared about 11 miles from the visitor viewing area, too far out to be seen other than by helicopter or boat.
During our drive to Hilo and the volcano, we passed so many changes of topography, climate and terrain, it caused the altimeter on Sam's watch to look like a roller coaster. Driving past the volcano, we encountered even more sulfuric air than I had experienced my previous time at the volcano. Our friend, who had asthma when younger, was definitely affected, and many of the areas in Volcano National Park were closed to visitors due to health concerns. These two issues are very important to take into consideration when planning a visit to the park, especially if anyone in your group has any kind of breathing issues or is pregnant, or very young. We were eventually able to go to the caldera and to the Thurston Lava Tubes before we left, but did not get to hike, and explore or get the photographs we wanted.
While the waves prevented our end of the trip snorkeling on the Kona side, it instead provided us with great opportunities to watch the magnificent whales at play, spouting and diving offshore. It also gave us lots of great photos, albeit sans lava, but equally powerful memories to cherish. We had already swum respectfully close to spinning dolphins and sea turtles in the ocean sans a swim with the dolphins or other program...they just showed up, like we did.
To me, it was another clue about managing expectations. Experiences start and end in our hearts and heads, and even more so, how we interpret (or some others would say rationalize)them. Labels about good and bad, timeliness, and expected purpose are just external manifestations of our reactions to the events around us that we often have no control over. What we do control 100 percent is our ability to control our own personal reactions and actions around any news or specific events (like what is happening now in Haiti) and non events like a lack of a desired action or event on the part of others.
My time on the island also confirmed my profound belief that travel amplifies the ability of the right people showing up in your life at the right time, even though, at the time, we may not always appreciate or understand why without the perspective of time and insight. Like in Kosovo, when working on wonderful humanitarian story, a film project became possible, and with no preplanning, the right people just showed up, each person adding their own perspective and became a link in the chain towards telling a remarkable story. It was the same feeling standing in line at the airport in Albania, and meeting someone who would be instrumental in helping get Jared and my book on diabetes published around the world. Here in Hawaii, I was able to see real growth of self pride in local heritage and locally based solutions, especially in the field of wellness, and the Hawaiian values of Ho'oponopono, similar in many ways to the Albanian concept of Besa-"keeping the promise". I sometimes shake my head at the far flung destinations that my passions carry me, while marveling at the unlikely similarities of cultures.
In Hawaiian, Ho'oponopono means "to make right". Essentially, it means to make it right with those who came before you (our positive inherited values), or to make right with the people with whom you have relationships (ideally everyone in the world). They call this the Hawaiian Code of Forgiveness, and it's a very important concept, because when we forgive others, we are also forgiving ourselves.
Simply put the process of Ho'oponopono involves the following steps:
1.Bring to mind anyone with whom you do not feel total alignment or support, etc.
2.In your mind's eye, construct a small stage below you
3.Imagine an infinite source of love and healing flowing from a source above the top of your head (from your Higher Self), and open up the top of your head, and let the source of love and healing flow down inside your body, fill up the body, and overflow out your heart to heal up the person on the stage. Be sure it is all right for you to heal the person and that they accept the healing.
4.When the healing is complete, have a discussion with the person and forgive them, and have them forgive you.
5.Next, let go of the person, and see them floating away. As they do, cut the aka cord that connects the two of you (if appropriate). If you are healing in a current primary relationship, then assimilate the person inside you.
6.Do this with every person in your life with whom you are incomplete, or not aligned.
The final test is, can you see the person or think of them without feeling any negative emotions. If you do feel negative emotions when you do, then do the process again.
I believe this process can be practiced daily by saying these few simple, but powerful words... I love you, I forgive you, Thank You. These words are the basis for self esteem, forgiveness and ultimately the core values we need to thrive and not just survive in this world-LOVE and GRATITUDE.
I guess than brings me back to the theme that I believe is continuing and amplifying for 2010. Through travel, we open ourselves us to a universe of new people and experiences. We must know from a core level that we are able to make a significant and positive difference in the world-pretty much every day. Once we understand that we are all inextricably linked together, and that we each hold a different key to the mystery of life-and quality of life, which every single person born onto this earth deserves, we can indeed serve as a rainbow bridge in 2010 and beyond.
I hope you will also share your thoughts and feelings, as well as the experiences that travel has brought to your perspective and committment to be part of the solution. May we all find inside ourselves, our Places of Refuge where we can be unconditionally sheltered and turn our hearts and lives into the same for others.
Make 2010 a time when you are consciously adding years to your life and life to your years.
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