Tag: support

Flames of support

Light the dark UKLast week I was fervently campaigning for lighting a candle in support of asylum seekers and refugees. The idea was warmly embraced by a number of friends and acquaintances and so on Sunday evening, at 9pm, in front of our houses, we lit up the dark and prayed for the refugees’ peaceful journeys to safety and remembered those who have perished at sea. We looked back in our ancestries and saw how each and every family had members who sought refuge and those who sheltered others.

When we gathered I thus realised that we share much more than we think. There is nothing more reassuring than seeing people who are close to you link together in this most crucial of ways. That what it means to be a human being for you means to be a human being for them. That to be respectful and mindful of others means to be a humanitarian. That to be a community means to be a humanitarian community. Nothing else builds trust as much as this.

Activism is not my strength. I am only learning to speak my mind firmly. Last week taught me one thing: that it’s only when you stop sitting on the fence and position yourself that you can seek practical solutions to problems. It’s only then that your mind starts to generate ideas that are worth implementing.

I know that last Sunday at 9pm we created a tiny little piece of history. History for our few families that decided to light a candle. History for our little toddlers who could not contain the joy of lighting candles in the darkness, who could not stop jumping up and down and laughing loudly and being totally in awe of the light and warmth. This event ignited not only the flame of the candle but also the flames of joy in these children. I am pleased and contented for myself and my friends that we’ve started creating the basis of stories to tell our children later in life. Stories of practised compassion, sympathy and connectedness. Thank you for your support Lovely People.

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“You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.” John Bunyan

Nothing New: Both Sides of The Coin

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Six months without buying anything new seems like a long period of time, but it is not. It is just six months, not six years, not sixteen and not sixty. It is just six odd months of reusing, borrowing, repairing and buying second-hand. Nothing new hasn’t defined my lifetime. But it has and will be defining the lifetime of others.

I must admit I had a moment of panic when I started the nothing new project. It wasn’t about not being able to buy things but it was about losing friends, losing opportunities to socialise and hang around together. I felt trapped. You see… one of the things that I decided to give up was coffee and you know how the world looks like these days – you meet at a coffee shop, you chat and giggle over a steamy black or frothy white drink. It’s isolating not to be able to have a cup of coffee with a friend, isn’t it?

I think this fear was triggered by the memories of my first year in the UK, when as a student I wasn’t really able to afford cups of coffee or dinners. It was serious. I was studying as well as working many hours per week as a waitress in pubs or restaurants. I wasn’t earning much, had no student loan, paid my rent and food from what I earned as a waitress so I really couldn’t afford many indulgences. If I had spent my money on those things I wouldn’t have been able to pay for my electricity bill in winter, the flight back home for Christmas or books for studying. I remember I used to do overtime just to be able to go for a coffee with a friend to discuss essays and literature. Tough time. Glad that it’s over. More than over. Now I have a choice. I have a choice to buy or not to buy and I am making the choice not to buy almost nonchalantly. Just because I can.

It doesn’t make me proud. Very often it makes me feel uncomfortable. “To buy or not to buy?” is not a question that offers two options to everyone. For many, “to buy” is just a matter of upgrading, changing or improving. For others, “to buy” means choosing between two or more necessities, two or more human rights: the right to study, the right to sleep, the right to have warm food, the right to socialise, and even the right to go to work. It feels comfortable and snug to be in the first group. It feels alienating and vulnerable to be in the second one. ‘Nothing new’ is not their choice. It’s not a lifestyle. It’s survival.