Peace Workshop 3

Dear Friends and Family,

So an opportunity to give a few more thoughts and anecdotes from the conference has arrived. Sorry that these emails are about half-a-week behind what is actually happening.  I will try to keep things chronological where possible.

I was in the middle of sharing about the wonderful people I met at the conference.

Some of the stories that have struck me the most are the ones about suffering. In one of our "dialogues," one question concerned how our religion/culture viewed or helped us to bear suffering and death. While there were different responses, varying from one sharing about how some people will really struggle with their faith during hard times, to hearing about how suffering can strengthen your faith (since when you have lost everything else, you will want to hold onto the one thing that cannot be taken from you).

When listening to these stories, it was sometimes easy to dismiss our own experiences of suffering and death. But when I shared about the loss that families feel when a dear one suffers from cancer, or when a young adult in the flower of life dies in a car accident, the  participants were the first to point out that does not make either greater or lesser.

Thank you for putting up with my terribly late emails.

All the best to you and your families.

May you enjoy the blessings of peace,

Sara