Dear friends,
I’m writing in the living room with my housemate Carly nearby, drinking a mug of what I believe is ginger, turmeric, and cinnamon tea. After quite a few sips, I’m feeling tipsy. It turns out that I have poured from the wrong bottle, the one with spiced whiskey. Oops. This is my first time consuming alcohol since June, when I committed to stop drinking entirely for Order of Interbeing training.
What brilliant timing. This month, as part of training, I studied the first of fourteen precepts: Openness. Today it is a simple practice: can I embrace my errors with laughter (even when accidentally breaking a precept)?
Please enjoy an essay I wrote exploring openness:
https://melaniegin.com/openness/
Password: plumtree
Two months of transitions and traveling home
In October, I moved into a new house in Nachlaot, a neighborhood known for the shuk (the lively market Machane Yehuda). My three housemates are members of the socialist Jewish youth movement Hashomer Hatzair, and have turned our home into a commune with shared income and food.
Two weeks ago, we hosted 50 diaspora Jews at our home for “Occupation Orientation”, an education event facilitated by the leftist anti-occupation collective All That’s Left (ATL). I’ve happily joined the collective, and am helping with Care Committee (supporting mental and emotional wellbeing of our activists) and Freedom School (teaching about the occupation).
I also started an intensive Arabic course at Bethlehem University with four South Korean classmates. I had just about mastered the Arabic alphabet and learned to conjugate in present tense when my mom called: a family member was very sick in California. I immediately flew back to San Francisco for two precious weeks at home. My Arabic studies have been put on hold until January.
I’m now back in Israel-Palestine, drafting funding proposals and brainstorming for my work in trade skills and resiliency education. I’ve decided to settle in Jerusalem, rather than keeping a place on either side of the line. My hope is that having one house will ground me in this land, and bless me with ever-deepening roots of friendship. Let’s see if it all works out and my visa from the Israeli Ministry of Interior is renewed for 2020 (in god’s will, insha’allah).
Thank you very much for reading, my friend. Please let me know how you are — I’d love to hear from you.
Melanie
ملني
מלני
P.S. I will be in China during Thanksgiving for the wedding of my best friend from childhood, Ellen, and then back in the states in mid-December. Hope to see many of you then.
