Honoring our collective origins

It’s the first week of July and we ended another week of more senseless violence: the deaths of Philander Castile in Minnesota and Alton B. Sterling in Louisiana at the hands of the police.  Then there was the shooting of the Dallas policemen, said to be in retaliation. And all of this came on the heels of the Istanbul airport attack, leaving 45 people dead and 230 injured, the coordinated bomb attacks in Baghdad, and the ongoing violence in Syria to name a few. So we are in a particularly somber mood today, wondering why there seems to be an escalation of violence and terrorism… [read more]

Interviews with Khaled: Be a grain of sand

As I mentioned in the first of this series, Khaled walked into our lives one fortuitous Saturday morning. Eryn and I were sitting on the patio with coffee in hand and immersed in conversation. At some point, when our discussion segued into the Middle East and the mass migration of Syrian refugees, I sensed a subtle but distinct presence nearby. I instinctively suggested to Eryn that we try our hand at the board. I say this because—at that time—we had only used the board on several occasions and were novices. So we situated ourselves in the living room with what would become our usual set up: comfortable chairs with loads… [read more]