Today, I felt like we were an International Family. We were celebrating International Day at school and each one of my children's year groups were representing a different country... my daughter wore a Saree as her class was representing India, my son was dressed up as a cowboy to represent the US of A, my husband wore his African shirt to represent Madagascar, and I wore my Palestinian Thobe with a Jordanian head dress.... One cannot be more international than that.... I am sure that if we had more children, we would have represented a country from each continent LOL...
My son was born in Jordan, then moved to live in Malawi for 7 months, he then moved back and lived in Jordan for 3 years....his father is Canadian, his mother is Iraqi Palestinian brought up in Jordan and now he lives in Thailand. If you ask him where do you come from... he says, "I am from everywhere!"
I love that feeling that we are from everywhere... I love his spirit... I love the fact that he does not stick to one nationality... or one group of people and feels that the world is his home. I love the fact that he gets to experience all these wonderful cultures and become a part of them so that when he grows up, he will pick and chose the parts of a culture/tradition/values that he likes and disregard what he does not like or accept.
I do not like fighting... never have and never will... I loathe war... my countries have suffered so much under war that I cringe every time I think of what happened to my family and the people of that country. I believe in peace... and so when my son told me once that he wanted to be a soldier, I nearly fainted.... WHY? NO NO NO... please NO... but I did not say anything except,"Why?" and he said,"I want to be a soldier of the world, so I could protect everybody and everything!" and I breathed a sign of relief... ok... now that is awesome...
If we had so many soldiers like him, we would not need wars. We would be protecting everyone from everyone... Funny thing to think of!
If man stopped thinking about power, oil, resources, conquering... If one stopped thinking of wanting what, or more than, the other one had.... If everyone lived on this Earth to protect it, its living things, its landscapes, its people... then we would not have wars... Everybody would be watching out for everybody else... They would watch out for their family, for their neighbors, for their fellow men/women and children in other countries, for their animals and plants....
Isn't that a wonderful feeling? Everybody has the right to be protected and watched out for... every person and living thing has the right to live and be free... What a wonderful peaceful world we would have... but alas... the 7 deadly sins are more powerful than we can ever imagine... This is why one of my favorite classics is Dante's Divine Comedy... We cannot break free of them unless we each work on ourselves one bit at a time... if we continue to make an effort to learn from our mistakes and the mistakes of others, we will surely be able to move on and be more civilized people of the world and not just one country.
3 comments:
A delightful photo of your international family! Like your son, I'm a happy mixture! My Dad is half Afrikaans, half German Jew; my Mom is half Irish Catholic and half English Protestant and I was born in Zishavani in Zimbabwe! So a good mix of different cultures and faiths run in my veins, which is perhaps why I love yoga and meditation so much! :)
While I agree that the world has had enough wars (that's an strong underlying theme in my debut novel), I think slightly differently from you on how to get to that Nirvana: yes, as individuals we must 'watch out for others'; we must learn to respect and accept our differences to others (another major theme in my novel!) but the way to lasting peace in the world is to seek it within ourselves first, for if we do not have a solid sense of peace within ourselves, how can we ever hope to find it without? The greatest gift of peace we can bring to the world is to heal our own inner wounds. Then that inner peace will be a light that shines from us and guides others to the same place where love and not war define our humanity and who we are as a species.
Hmmm. Lana, this is what I love about your posts - you always make me think! :)
Judy, South Africa
What a lovely photograph. You all look so happy and it's great to see you with your little ones. I feel so privilaged to have found your blog. What a lovely thought your little boy has about our world and his wishes for it.
"I am from everywhere!" Just perfect!
Awww what wonderful heart warming comments... Thank you.... having you read and comment on my blog entry makes me so happy... I am honored that you take the time to read it... thank you!
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