Dearest Listserve friends
I wanted to spend this moment to share something that changed my life.
In 2008 I was failing college, and feeling stuck in my life living as a conservative Muslim in Michigan. I had to hide my girlfriends, my musical instruments, and the fact I was running concerts from my community.
We met accidentally, and within 30 mins of meeting him Alec Resnick reached out to me a flight to cambridge MA, and a couch to sleep on. He said I didn't seem happy in Michigna and suggested I drop out of school and leave home to start a new life in Cambridge, MA.
It flipped my lid. It was impossible. I couldn't leave my family. I was to stay at home till I was married! I couldn't drop out of school! What about all that money and time invested! What about my girlfriend? My life?
He planted that seed in my head within 30 mins of meeting him. Three month's later I found myself in a car on an unknown street in Cambridge, freezing to death, wondering what the hell I was doing there. All I had with me was 3 bags of baby carrots, a Mitsubishi eclipse so broken I had to crawl in through the trunk, an address and a phone number.
I could get into how this was the start of an unlocking for me. Of norms, of expectations, of traditions. Unlocking myself out of the shackels of fear. And all it took was someone to offer a base layer of security, a new floor to walk on different the one I had assumed was the only earth to stand on and it's been the start of a 10 year long adventure.
I'm now writing to you from Beirut Lebanon where I'm building a community home, offering a key for some of the youth I work with. A new life different than the one expected from them in the Ghettos here.
So I offer you something beautiful. Something so simple, yet so rare. A concept you can consider bringing into your life. I call it the Care Contract.
It's simple, I would like you to find someone in your life that is needing some care, and promise them that you will be there for them, that if they ever need a couch to crash on, or an ear to listen, that you'll be there. Learning from attachment theory, a little bit of security in a world that feels so scary sometimes can go a long way to opening up so much beauty and possibility.
If you do plan on doing this. Please email me and let me know. I'd love to hear your stories. And I'd love to know if I can offer you support in any way. We're saving you a room in Beirut if you're ever in town.
Huge hugs.
+Bilal Ghalib
I'm on twitter / facebook as: bilalghalib please reach out!
Bilal Ghalib
Beirut, Lebanon
[email protected]