{"id":1021,"date":"2014-04-27T19:57:25","date_gmt":"2014-04-27T19:57:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/writeherewritenow\/?p=1021"},"modified":"2014-04-27T19:57:25","modified_gmt":"2014-04-27T19:57:25","slug":"communities-beyond-borders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/writeherewritenow\/2014\/04\/27\/communities-beyond-borders\/","title":{"rendered":"Communities Beyond Borders"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIn separateness lies the world\u2019s great misery, in compassion lies the world\u2019s true strength.\u201d \u00a0Buddha<\/span><\/p>\n

Diane Dreher’s last blog about healing communities is, partly, the inspiration for this meditation. If I were to reflect on the kind of art that brings inspiration and healing to different communities across borders, the artist I can think of is Consuelo Jimenez Underwood.<\/p>\n

Consuelo Jimenez Underwood<\/span>\u00a0is a contemporary Latina \"Consuelo-flowers\"<\/a>fiber artist who has exhibited her work across the United States and taught textile art at San Jose State University. Her work uses multimedia and, more than anything else, forces us to think about the meaning of borders. \u00a0Whether it is the geographical borders that we erect to separate communities \u00a0or the invisible borders we create to discriminate among different groups, she reminds us in her work that the mother earth is one. In her more recent \u00a0exhibitions, in contrast with the painful partitions of the U.S.-Mexico border, we see the unity of a land filled with flowers. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When I see her work, I see the suffering of those desperate\"9939865386_6eb7c4a479_z\"<\/a> enough to cross a very dangerous border, looking for refuge and healing among us. But those images of flowers remind us that the land is never divided, that there was a time when we saw in each other and in our immigrants the common humanity that unites all consciousness.<\/p>\n

Try this practice:<\/p>\n