Newsletter October 17, 2008

www.faithhousemanhattan.org

Hello Friends from Around the World,

In this current global financial crisis, we are facing some sober realities. Economic resources we trusted are failing, our life circumstances and plans for the future are changing, and we are stepping into uncharted territory. But the sky is not falling. It stays above us, open and blue, the expanse mirroring the vast unexplored space within us. This is an opportunity to turn our attention to what matters.

First, people matter. Especially people that our human family has left behind during the decades of economic prosperity. They are going to bear the brunt of the coming hardships. Maybe this is a time to let yourself experience fear, uncertainty, and perhaps even hunger in order to participate in the reality they have been living all this time? Maybe this is a time for you to dispel the apathy of the past and engage as a citizens who can make a difference?

Second, our souls matter. This crisis invites us to attend to things that feed our spiritual hunger and help us, in verity, stay alive. Maybe this is the time to turn to your tradition and dig deeper than you have dug before? Or maybe this is a time to break new ground in your search and find new sources of nourishment, new springs, new paths?

Whatever you do, I hope that when you step out of your home and lift your head to look up and strain your eyes to see the sky above you, the sheer vastness above will call upon the vastness of resources within you.

Thank you for being the friend or distant member of Faith House. We feel your presence with us. The sky will not fall, the river flows, God knows you name, and the universe is unfolding as it should.

We have launched our weekly gatherings, and are like a newborn baby, full of life we don't quite know how to handle, gasping for the air, in need of care and support. It is beautiful. Next week we will send you our House Warming appeal for financial support in hope that sustaining the life of Faith House will be one of the ways you can help heal the world and in the process nourish your own soul.

Samir Selmanovic, Faith House Manhattan