Blessings Blog

Today I'm thankful for continued momentum among my Cuba delegation to pass each other resources, encourage each other to keep talking with friends and family about our experience, and do more for the US-Cuba relationship. This is something I am passionate about, and it is unbelievably hard to feel that connection to Cuba from here, but so many Cubans spoke to us from the heart, imploring that we not return and do nothing, but remember our experience and act on it. A quote from a documentary on faith and immigration that I watched recently fits in: "We should be concerned not with how states are drawn, but how we see each child of God. As people of faith, we should be concerned with how we treat one another."

One of my fellow delegates sent along a petition to end travel restrictions, and in response, here is what I posted on Facebook: "I want every U.S. citizen to have the freedom and opportunity to travel to Cuba as I have. They are a beautiful people, and I strongly believe cross-cultural connections and understanding each other's reality can overcome a messy political relationship. Will you sign and circulate this petition to end U.S. travel restrictions to Cuba?" My apologies for using this blog as a political platform, but I write out of faith and conscience, and I do not require you to agree with me, but I do hope that you consider how US policy affects other beautiful children of God that are separated from us by 90 miles but a world of political stubbornness.

Today I emailed female elders in a community we met with to tell them that our tiny group is making good on our promise to come back and do something. To send a message to President Obama and our elected representatives and see where it gets us. To tell our world about them and spread the word that if Americans and Cubans love each other, we should be able to travel to Cuba and to end the blockade that is stuck in an era far different than the one in which we live now. My life has been so richly blessed by opportunities to learn through the intense, the intellectual, and the objective now complemented by the intense, the emotional, and the interpersonal. I emailed Cuba. Wow.

I am also thankful for a relaxing afternoon of scrumptious scone baking with my fellow alum bum in Northfield, to be followed by my first Zumba class at the Just Food community room! The co-op outreach coordinator has been so incredibly wonderful and supportive of my idea to start a class there, and we are truly in this together. She so wants the class to succeed and keep it going for as long as I am in town, and today I got to dance it up with a small core group who is dedicated to this whole six-week session, so we will see if they are able to convince more friends to join them for future classes!

And I am thankful for a nice night capped off by a flurry of Cuba travel blogging (although this post is so full it might take me a couple of days) intermixed with a random, sweet call from a high school friend to check in, a chat about cuisine and travel yearnings with one of my housemates over caipirinhas, and pleasant writing distractions in the form of Facebook conversations with two lovely friends who I am lucky to have in my life.