I’ve spent the last week floating around New York City. Arriving here is always a chaotic and beautiful jolt. The issue of where to crash and who to see and how to manage my space and comfort is always with me here. Life has been particularly unsettled lately and so as I juke through busy streets or nestle around the subway bars I’m especially alert for unexpected comforts.
I found comfort walking through Brooklyn on a quiet Sunday evening, passing an invisible boundary and finding myself amid the bustle of an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood preparing for the High Holy days. I realize I am at once soothed and nervous amid the sea of black hats, scarves and yarmulkes. I had been asked in Union Square that day if I was Jewish but my furry vest and uncovered head make me a conspicuous outsider here. At the same time I feel a peaceful piousness about activity around me, a sense of community and home that is not mine but is confident in its own identity. My mind wanders to Israel and I am reaffirmed, of course this community deserves a safe place of it’s own. I do to.
I suppose I should introduce the premise of this log and my trip. More will certainly come up as I go along, but I should at least lay out the bare bones of my plans for the next 2 months. I plan to spend the next week or so in the New Jersey/Philadelphia/New York area catching up with friends, visiting family and recharging myself. Beginning the 23 of October, I will spend a month in Turkey reconnecting with my host family, visiting friends and helping my mom settle into her new home there. By late November I hope to begin a delegation with the Christian Peacemaker Teams in Israel/Palestine. The delegation will last about three weeks and then I plan to wind my way back to the US.
I plan to use this blog as a sounding board for my thoughts and prayers along this journey as well as a way to share my experience. stay tuned.
Evan Welkin 