May 2021

It is with great humility that I take over responsibility for WISDOM WINDOW from Gail Katz.  My hope is that recipients of this message will feel free to suggest content for future newsletters and will share the great sisterhood that this organization provides for women of all faiths.  Join us as we proceed along paths of tolerance, knowledge, and love.  Karin Dains UPCOMING PROGRAMS.

Please join WISDOM on May 20, 2021, for “Trials, Tribulations, Triumphs: Our Stories as Black Women”, a zoom event from 7:30-9:00 pm.This program offers a glimpse into the personal lives of two WISDOM Advisory Board members, Reverend Stancy Adams and Delores Lyons. Attend this program and become acquainted with two engaging and successful Black women and gain an up-close and personal look at the challenges they have faced as Black women in our country.This is the fifth program of an ongoing series put on by WISDOM to help its members and the larger community better understand systemic racism and its multi-faceted impact. REGISTRATION is required and can be accomplished on our website at www.interfaithwisdom.com.

WISDOM is coordinating a fun program called “WISDOM Walks.”  Each participant will be paired with a random walking partner so the pair can get to know each other during the walk. We are really excited about this as we get an amazing opportunity to learn more about our sisters and burn some calories at the same time. Email Mary and sign up soon!  Looking forward to walking with you all!

Continuing our Race & Medicine series, WISDOM is excited to host a conversation with Dr. Oveta Fuller and Judy Nimer Muhn who will be discussing the historical injustices faced by Indigenous Americans.  Judy’s lineage traces to a medicine family of the Oglala Lakota of South Dakota and she is also Metisse  (First Nations, Canada) .  Join us for our upcoming webinar – Generational Trauma:  First Nations onTuesday, May 25th from 7-8:30pm.   Click here to register.

WISDOM SERVES In honor of Black History month in February, WISDOM partnered with Zaman International to bring warmth to the stomachs and souls of 100 homeless people housed by Lighthouse of Oakland County.  Chefs Adriana & Daniela from Zaman prepared a delicious meal and WISDOM volunteers helped pack and deliver them to Lighthouse.  Dinners included individually written notes of encouragement and hope.

WISDOM at the MUSEUMContinuing our education series to study the roots of systemic racism, WISDOM members toured the special “Voting Matters” exhibit at the Charles Wright Museum in March.

We focused on the Women’s Suffrage Movement exhibit, learning that the right to vote for women granted in 1920 did not include African American women or men.  The tour was part of WISDOM’s overall programming theme of the year to explore institutionalized racism in the context of religion, medicine, suffrage and other areas.

The poet Imtiaz Dharker was born in Pakistan and raised, in her words, as a “Muslim Calvinist” in Glasgow.  It has touched the hearts of the WISDOM group, so I have decided to share it with you. “Never,” said my father, “Never cut a pomegranate through the heart.  It will weep blood. Treat it delicately, with respect. Just slit the upper skin across four quarters. This is a magic fruit, so when you split it open, be prepared for the jewels of the world to tumble out, more precious than garnets, more lustrous than rubies, lit as if from the inside. Each jewel contains a living seed. Separate one crystal. Hold it up to catch the light. Inside is a whole universe. No common jewel can give you this.” Afterwards, I tried to make necklaces of pomegranate seeds. The juice spurted out, bright crimson, and stained my fingers, then my mouth. I didn’t mind.  The juice tasted of gardens I had never seen, voluptuous with myrtle, lemon, jasmine, and alive with parrots’ wings. The pomegranate reminded me that somewhere I had another home.