Walking With-Walking Freely-Walking Forward

Walking with one another against those who trod on others is necessary.
Walking Freely is only possible when our steps are peaceful.
Walking forward as Beauty becoming manifest through humanity happens only when we walk with one another, the Earth and the Great Spirit of life that holds us, in peace.

These are the ways of the great ones! These are the life giving ways I have found in every tribe, people group and life giving faith experience I have been amongst. Walking WITH, walking Free, walking Forward as Beauty becoming manifest through humanity are the ways of resilient people.  These are the ways of the strongest, whom have endured great struggle, unfathomable pain and unspeakable torture and moved forward towards peace.  Native Americans from many tribes, peoples of the revolutions in Central and South America, undocumented people's in the US; Cambodian, Hmong, Laotian refugees, my brothers and sisters of the African American/Black American communities, Black African peoples who walk this way have taught the world so much.  Religious leaders who humbly speak of and work to live well with the Creator, Giver and Spirit of Life that is whole and based in Beauty, Justice, Compassion, Mercy, Peace and Lovingkindness, have also taught me so much.

As I continue my research on Human Trafficking and in particular sex trafficking, I am thankful to come across so many organizations walking with one another, in powerful, united steps towards peace, for the sake of restoring dignity to the full of Humanity.  One in particular is Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women(GAATW).  The extent of the efforts of this group to walk in partnership and in non-violence has informed and helped me to understand the great complexities, contributing factors and necessary partnerships of effective advocacy against trafficking of women.  

Primary to me now, is that the way out of suffering is most profoundly known by the one who has endured suffering!  I go to Nepal to be with women and children, to be loving presence as we engage in art making, and being together in ways that are creative, honoring and Hope filled.  I go to Nepal as a quite learner of the ways of the teachers there, and as a woman who has known the painful experience of dominance in many forms, including my personal, professional and religious life.  I go to Nepal as a woman who practices listening for the emerging heart of of Hope that springs from the suffering there, that leads to resilience, that leads to fighting for freedom of oppression and enslavement for all humanity, and that leads to Peace: Beauty of Humanity fully realized.

Thank you so much to all who have contributed to this work!  I am so humbled and thankful that bringing opportunities for healing and reduction in human suffering, matters so much to so many.

As I prepare to leave, I want to encourage anyone who is still considering helping me get to Nepal, Please, give today!  I have still a deficit of over $600 of identified expenses yet to be covered in addition to travel expenses I will incur on the trip.
The most expedient way to donate is to go to:

gofundme.com/Hope-Rising-Amidst

or make a tax exempt donation by check mailed to: Nepal CO/Sunset Covenant Church
                                                                                   18555 NW Rock Creek Blvd.
                                                                                   Portlad, Oregon 97229
I am most grateful too for your prayers!
Prayer is the greatest sustenance of Life I know, thank you for giving prayer!

With much love, and a blank canvass, waiting to be filled with what will emerge as we share life in community in Nepal, I sign out for know.


May peace be in you, Beauty find you and Joy that springs forth from love
                          abound in and through you this day!
Mary

Beauty and Destruction between birthing and dying...

We are all born into a world embroiled in the simultaneously sounding vibrations of becoming beautiful and dying destructively by the activities of human hands.  We are born with the potentials of creating and destroying.   We choose or become caught in the waves of power-filled human restrictions and or beauty.   The earth and world around us resound the choices we are making, the traps we are caught in.  Earth and Sky, moaning storms of destruction, rains of weeping and songs of springly birds, lava pouring new land, and snow melting refreshing waters birthing.  This is the poietic way of things.

Human trafficking is power-filled restriction which traps so many, especially women and children, in devastatingly destructive human activity.  To restrict is to put limit on, to keep under control, to deprive of freedom.(Oxford Dic.) Its Latin meaning is to “bind fast, to constrain”. (Oxford. Dic.) Victims of human trafficking are bound and held fast in the global vibrations of violence which are given permission to flourish by greed and need.  Modern day slavery continues to be the most lucrative business in the global market, demonstrating that greed knows no restraint!  Modern day slavery continues too, because dominance, having dominion over, remains a powerful story in some cultures and is in need of victimization of others in order to remain a strong enough story for some to believe in the practice of human hierarchy as righteous.

Painfully true too, is the impact of restraint, which is often constraint.  Human beings whom have suffered oppressive restrictions of domination, even when set free, struggle with self -constriction.  To constrain is to become/make narrower, to make ourselves smaller.  People whom have suffered domination, often must work really hard to regain the ability to suspect that beauty and lovingkindness exists within them, can be discovered in the world around them and is worth the risk of exposing oneself, to be regained as a way of life.

In going to Nepal, I am bringing myself, with what freedom I have gained, to join in efforts of strengthening women and children recently unbound from circumstances of human trafficking.  I go, knowing that in contributing to healing and decreasing of constriction, I too will find increased freedom to live more fully.  I will be enriched by the courage and dignity and determination of Nepali women and children to work to regain a full sense of their dignity.  All of us contributing to this effort will be enriched by the beauty of these women and children daring to risk trusting that goodness, kindness, HOPE and LOVE will be the strongest force in humanity.  This is our greatest human potential, to be HOPE Rising AMIDST humanly generated vibrations of greed, dominance and destruction.

I go to Nepal with the help of many others, to contribute to breaking bonds of restrictions and adopted habits of constrictions for the sake of bringing forth HOPE Rising Amidst the painful Human condition  and continued entrapment of habitual human enslavement.

If you would like to contribute to the dismantling of the injustice that is Human Trafficking through this effort you may send tax deductible donations to:

Nepal

C/O Sunset Covenant Church

18555 NW Rock Creek Blvd

Beaverton, Oregon 97229

Or Electronically at(non-tax deductible):

http://www.gofundme.com/Hope-Rising-Amidst

Please join with me in being HOPE Rising Amidst the painful reality that is human trafficking!