A pre-Refugee Week arrival to my inbox... courtesy of Lesley Walker, a sentiment to carry in the Adelaide march on June 16, the Welcome Walks around the country and any celebrations you take part in for Refugee Week 2012.

FRIENDSHIP & FLOWERS.

15June2012

Lesley Walker. 

To My Gracious Friends

Every Hindu friend in detention.

Every Christian friend in detention.

Every Muslim friend in detention.

Every man, woman & child.

Is Grieving .

Privately remembering & commemorating precious lives.

Lives lost to each family.

Murdered, or bombed, or press-ganged, or kidnapped, or disappeared.

Or Drowned.

Grieving also the mothers & fathers who chose to leave children behind.

In that violent homeland, those children are with grandparents & relatives.

‘Unaccompanied’ children live in detention. Some for a year, two years.

It is not for me to know why they come. They are HERE NOW.

In violent homelands are their mothers & fathers & brothers & sisters.

In Iran. In Indonesia. In Sri Lanka. In India. In Afghanistan. In Pakistan. In Vietnam. In Africa.

In China. In every continent.

Hearts are aching across the globe.

How can I comfort you?

What might soothe the painful longing, the regrets, the never-ending thinking through long nights.

What can I offer that makes a difference, what might soothe your heartache a little?

Flowers.

There are no flowers in detention.

No flowers to put before the memorial altars.

No flowers to gaze upon with wonder.

No flowers to recall the gardens & parks & wild bush places or jungly forests in another cherished land.

And Friendship.

This I can offer. I can walk beside you in this hard time.

I can offer friendship in this hard time.