Written: March 2, 2021
Extremism gets our attention.
 

Dear friends, I am not you. You are not me.
 
We are not each other.
 
The fact that we are not each other has caused so much pain within the four walls of our homes, within the boundaries of our nations, and within the vast expanse of our earth. Sometimes I wonder: If we could learn to not only welcome each other but to welcome all the beautiful ways we are polar opposites from each other, would the pain caused by impugning our differences ease up a bit, maybe a lot?
 
Refuge Coffee is all about welcoming refugees, those who have fled violence and need a place to land, to breathe, to start over. In Clarkston alone, refugees and immigrants from 45 countries who speak 65 languages live among the rest of us in a 1.4-square-mile neighborhood.

We are not each other. This fact has the potential to cause pain and to create beauty.
 
But Refuge Coffee is also about welcoming everyone, because every human needs to find the kinship between his or her unique not-me-ness and your unique not-you-ness. This need to find kinship in the differences is not just a stranger to stranger, immigrant to non-immigrant need, it is a need inside each of our homes, too. For instance, my husband and I live in a house together, eating, sleeping, entertaining, thinking out loud, working, etc.

My husband and I are not each other, either. This fact has caused us pain and created beauty.
 
The way of welcome steers us toward beauty. It is the way that not only acknowledges that you are not me and I am not you, but celebrates our collective not-each-otherness. That’s why welcome has so many faces, so many languages, so many tastes and aromas, and so many appropriate and lovely gestures.  
 
Finding beauty with you,

Kitti