Hummus and Baba Ganoush

I love hummus and baba ganoush. I love Ali Baba Grill's hummus and baba ganoush the best. If you want to taste heaven, come visit me and I'll take you to Ali Baba's and we will stuff ourselves with their hummus and baba ganoush.

Big, honkin' hummus
(Guinness World Record Hummus)
(Could I tolerate so much bliss?)

Three nights in a row we have worked with these postcards. Three nights in a row, hummus and baba ganoush have sustained us while we worked. Over these three days, I have touched the names of 989 U.S. soldiers.

Yesterday I saw Pat Tillman's name on a postcard. I could tell that a young person wrote that name on the card. I suspect it was a young man. He didn't just write Pat's name and age. He wrote Pat's rank and he wrote that Pat was an NFL player. He put Pat's card on the very top of the pile of cards he had.

And I saw Juan Torres, Jr.'s name. I met Juan's father when I was at Camp Casey protesting the Iraq war. I can still see his Juan Sr.'s face, his tears; I can feel his kind, broken heart.

Eating baby carrots dipped in hummus and baba ganoush while I typed in names, I could swear that I live among angels. It seems we can look for God or One-ness or whatever we call that which our heart yearns for and, all along, it is truly, truly with us in every moment.

- It is in my friend, Arnie, who is working with me on this project. Neither of us knew how much it would take to do it. Arnie has poured himself into it like water upon thirsty land.

- It is in the way volunteers and staff came together to respectfully respond to a woman who had issues with the work that we are doing.

- It is in the young people who have participated. As we ate hummus and baba ganoush and typed in names and strung up postcards last night; three beautiful beings in their 20s showed up to help. Oh my. Pure presence. They live their lives making this world a better place. They volunteer with Fight With Tools, a community of young people who work to "Wake Up, Activate, Transform and Step Up." I didn't even know that I could work for the betterment of this world when I was in my 20s!

- It's in Mr. CFP's understanding when I spend almost every waking hour on a project and the house turns into a dump.

-It is in everything.

This morning, I watched the video of K.D. Lang singing at the opening of the 2010 Olympics. A beautiful voice can open the dam of held-back tears. That is what happened this morning as I listened to K.D. singing Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah.

Acknowledging the pain of war breaks my heart, but so does hearing a voice of such crystal beauty. We judge one as bad and the other as good, but my heart breaks open just the same.

K.D. Lang's rendition of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah at the opening of the Olympics.