Way back when I lived in the UK, I had a schedule for what I was going to blog to you as the weeks rolled on. That was before the world turned upside down and I started staring north to the equator and not south to it. My posts since then have been about that world and the ways life has changed, then have included the turmoil coming out of an envigoragted totalitarianism across the planet. I go back to my schedule today and find that my plan is spot on for this moment. Who knew?
Back on September 2, 2024, Pete and I were working our way south from the last exhibition of both tours, stopping at various places to drop off paintings to new homes. Our first stop was to the Darwen Asylum and Refugee Enterprise, DARE. DARE is part of the East Lancashire Missional Partnership, North Western Synod, United Reformed Church. I wish I could rattle on about various members of it, naming names, but that’s not right for the work of such a group or for those who support it from the organisations which with they are connected. Amazingly, connectedly, lovingly, DARE gathers in all those named in their acronymn - Asylum seekers and Refugees - and joins them with the local community with the other word in the DARE name - Enterprise. This includes respect, recognition and help with daily living in every way you can imagine. Pete and I left the receiving event with wonderful food from across the planet made right on site in Lancashire. What a fabulous contrast to so much we read in other social media.
The painting we left behind is I am Your Neighbour. I confess to being shocked that DARE jumped on selecting this as soon as I made known the she could be available. It’s a hard picture with a shrapnel spattered woman staring out from quite real fence posts and nails reminding us all that she is our neighbour. I didn’t think people who experienced anything like what she is experiencing would want to be reminded about what they left. Quite the contrary it seems. People wanted the painting to remind them of their personal courage. They had power to remind anyone who met them that we are all neighbours and the people of DARE have the courage to say to newcomers - ‘you are our neighbour’. So this dear woman now speaks from her painting in the front hallway of DARE in Darwen in Lancashire. When you can, please stop by. The welcome you’d receive is mind blowing and world changing. We need this hopeful reality to speak to the incredibly weird time in which we live.
