“I do not know where I am going. Where I have come from is disappearing, I am unwelcome and my beauty is not beauty here. My body is burning with the shame of not belonging….The lines, the forms, the people at the desks, the calling cards, the immigration offices, the looks on the street, the cold settling deep into my bones, the English classes at night, the distance I am from home. But… all of this is better than the scent of a woman completely on fire, or a truckload of men, who look like my father pulling out my teeth and nails, or fourteen men between my legs, or a gun, or a promise or a lie, or his name, or his manhood in my mouth.”
Warson Shire, writer, poet, editor, teacher and author of Teaching My Mother To Give Birth
“In a sea of human beings, it is difficult, at times even impossible, to see the human as being. ”
Aysha Taryam, Arab Editor, author of The Opposite of Indifference
It would be wonderful if all people living in the United States felt hopeful and secure enough to welcome refugees from other places, but unfortunately, many in our own country feel disenfranchised and fearful and deprived. So I suggest we think of all human beings as refugees fleeing from pain, do all we can to understand the traumatic nature of human existence, and all we can to heal it, spiritually, emotionally, and in as practical ways (like health care, employment, equal rights) as possible.
“Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”
“One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.”
Dr. Patricia Hunter's Blog 