My last class for my Master’s program was a preaching class of all things! I have no intention of becoming a preacher, but I truly enjoyed the class and the skills gained will definitely help in my work as a social and earth justice activist.
I wanted to share this last sermon with you because it is meant as a message for my community, as you’ll hear in the introduction.
In this talk, I begin with the Sufi invocation and then speak to how we might truly aspire to recognize our place of Oneness, as the Only Being. I reference some of the new earth sciences that tell us there is only one forest, as an example of how this reality is manifest in the only true scripture, the scripture of nature.
When you have 20 minutes to spare, I invite you to enjoy it, and I welcome any feedback or thoughts in case I ever have the opportunity to deliver this to an actual audience!
We are so honored to have this dear friend in Portland, Arifa Byron. The work she is doing and has done is phenomenal and important. These powerful words reflect the person she is and the passion and beauty she brings to our Sufi Ruhaniat community and our world.
Fashion, turn to the left,
Fashion, turn to the right.
Oooooh Fashion.
We are the goon squad
and we’re coming to town.
–David Bowie
And so it goes.
What can we do when dignity falls out of fashion?
Merely turn to face what’s next, passively entertained?
Revel in the artistry without questioning the art?
How do we turn to notice the steady barrage of atrocities,
spreading like an oil spill, sullying our sacred waters,
Whose responsibility is it to wave the flag of memory,
and demand a re-awakening to humanity?
Whose flag do we wave, as we steep
in this bath of humiliation?
Self-satisfaction is in fashion now, the bigger the better.
All of the safeguards, the scaffolding of democracy,
have turned out to be made of cheese,
folding and melting into a sour soup.
Peace has become a foreign object,
unseen, ignored, easily trampled
into broken pieces, fragmented pottery shards,
awaiting future archeologists to piece it back together.
I wonder what tomorrow’s fashions will bring,
what seedlings can be planted for future harvest, in such uncertain soil?
Will there be farmers to pull nourishment out of nothingness?
How might dignity bloom? Sprouting amidst the dirty tangle of brambles?
Scanning the horizon for signs of promise.
Seeking dignity’s return on the fluttering wings of peace,
sung in a cacophony of birdsong,
bringing balance.
BIO
Amanda Smith Byron is a social justice educator with over 30 years of experience working with diverse communities to heal trauma and transform conflict. Dr. Byron is an Assistant Professor in Conflict Resolution at Portland State University, where she directs the Holocaust and Genocide Studies Project, and focuses teaching and research on unsettling the role of identity in conflict, understanding enmification and hatred as root causes of violence, and developing peacebuilding strategies to effectively address ethnoreligious conflict. Her current research interests are focused on the restoration of dignity in the aftermath of atrocity.
Dear friends, This Friday eve, as the Shvat moon waxes toward full plumpness, you are invited to gather for a non-Zionist, Kohenet (Hebrew priestess)-led shabbat service.
7pm Seattle University Student Center, room 210
Kohenet community prayer leaders will lead us in song and prayer. No experience celebrating shabbat necessary.
Expect drumming, singing, and feel welcome to bring instruments for sharing songs after the service.
All who want to join a non-Zionist ritual space are welcome.
I am deeply honored and proud to be a member of the Seattle Peace Chorus whose mission is the use of choral music to promote peace and social and earth justice.
I wanted to extend this invitation to all of you, my dear friends, even though Wendy and I will be traveling to visit our daughter and will have to miss it ourselves. It will be a wonderful celebration and an opportunity to support this excellent cause.
Feast for Peace, Saturday 28 March 2020 – 5:30 – 9 pm Please join us for an evening of feasting, wine, and fabulous entertainment!
……………………………………………….. Saturday 28 March 2020 5:30 pm – 9 pm Mount Baker Community Club ……………………………………………….. Purchase Tickets Here
Early-bird prices are available now until 15 February.
Can’t attend? Please consider making a donation in lieu of attendance HERE.
Interested in becoming a sponsor?
For sponsorship opportunities, please contact
Dee Knapp at dee.knapp@comcast.net
View our sponsorship levels here.
Questions?
Contact our event coordinator, Sarah, at sarah@gfsevents.org
Funds raised at this event are critical to support
our ongoing work to cultivate peace and justice through music.
6:00 p.m. Community Potluck 7:30 p.m. Zikr Allah (360) 321 2001 (Lee Amin)
Beloveds, The Whidbey Zikr Circle will take place, God-willing, Next Sunday, February 9th. Hamid, Wakil, and Zarifah will be the posts. Accompanying will be Krishnpriya on the keyboard and Khalid Ron Ward on drums.
Sufis say insh’Allah a lot, meaning God willing. God had some other plans in January and Amin wisely called off the circle for safety reasons. We appreciate his sense of caution in caring for the community.
I will be in Guatemala for the month of February. insh’Allah, I will be back with you in March!
In my research for a new talk about our connectedness to every natural being, I came across this wonderful poem in the book, “The Secret Teachings of Plants: The Intelligence of the Heart in the Direct Perception of Nature” by Stephen Harrod Buhner. I believe he is the author of the poem.
Semen is Latin for a dormant, fertilized, plant ovum— a seed. Men’s ejaculate is chemically more akin to plant pollen. See, it is really more accurate to call it mammal pollen.
To call it semen is to thrust an insanity deep inside our culture: that men plow women and plant their seed when, in fact, what they are doing is pollinating flowers.
I have made it through the last classes in my Master’s program and now I’m on the final track to complete my thesis, internship, etc. to graduate (Inshallah) in May!
It is my hope that this blog can be a channel for all of us to continue to remember our connection to the One, to our earth, and to each other. We have much work to do and I truly believe we have the capacity, motivation, resilience, and power to create a new reality.
I love this quote from Terence McKenna – “What is out of control, what is in fact dying is a world that had become too top-heavy with its hubris, too bent by its own false value systems and too dehumanized to care about what happens to its own children. So I say, good riddance to it. … Let’s create a new world.”
In community with all of you, and with the many prophets, thinkers, sages (especially the youth!), we can and will create beauty, harmony, and love in a culture that respects the earth, our siblings, and ourselves as equally deserving of sustainable sustenance, abundance, and joy.
My work toward a Master’s degree in Social Change and a certificate in Spiritual Direction is moving toward its final phases (thus the dearth of recent postings here!)
As part of my practicum for Spiritual Direction, I am required (blessed!) to offer, free of charge, Spiritual Direction sessions for one person for the next 3-4 months. If you would be interested in trying this out, please contact me directly at drmatthewsusa@gmail.com.
Spiritual Direction is perhaps better described as Spiritual Companionship. It is an opportunity for you to spend time being deeply heard and encouraged along your spiritual path no matter what that might look like.
As Interfaith Spiritual Directors, we are extensively trained in deep and active listening, connecting with the Divine, and a wide and expansive understanding and appreciation for all of the world’s faith traditions as well as the science and belief systems of those who would choose, “none of the above” as their spiritual path.
If this feels like something that would benefit you, please consider helping me toward my final goals and graduation in the Spring.
And be aware that once I have completed these goals, I will be offering Spiritual Direction on a sliding scale basis, so this may be a path we can share in the future as well.
