Porque No?






Turning the bollards into butterflies. The mural at the Migrant Resource Center in Agua Prieta carries a beautiful hope for transformation.

Even though the world seems so bleak to me these days, I still do harbor hope in my heart. Hope that the spirit of openness and love in human beings will prevail over the spirit of fear and hatred. And that a better world is possible. In my brain, I know that such a hope defies the logic of where we are on this planet. But in my heart, I know it is in fact happening.

And really, what is our choice? To not have hope? To see only the darkness, only the bollards? That way is no way to live this sacred and miraculous life we have been given. The real question is how do we sustain hope in the face of such real and pervasive pain and violence everywhere we look?

My own answer is to work on it. Hope doesn't just come by itself. We have to put ourselves into motion creating it. This is what I have seen refugees doing. They are risking their lives because they still have hope - they have not given up. And they are doing it for their children and grandchildren.

Me too. It's why I keep keeping on with this kind of activist work. It's becoming something of a way of life for me, it seems. Sometimes people comment that I have a lot of stamina to keep volunteering for this kind of duty. But it's not that this work drains me of energy - it gives me energy. It gives me hope.

Now that we've finished our CPT accompaniment gig here at the border, I can see that I need better Spanish to be able to continue with this. So, in March, I'm going to Guatemala for a month of immersion and schooling. Because I still have hope that I can actually have a conversation with someone en español! Porque no?

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