I met Ali in 2009. A bright, hardworking and kind young man from Baghdad, Ali found himself on my doorstep. Ali, the recipient of a scholarship from the Iraqi student project, would be attending Dominican University. His support team, a group of caring individuals from neighboring parishes invited our participation. We offered Ali a bedroom — a home.

Well logosIn his scholarship application he stated a hope that perhaps “Americans would see that not all Muslims are terrorists.” Ali quickly became family to us and us to him. In the years that ensued Ali found home in this country beyond my immediate and extended family. As his world expanded so did his consciousness.

Last fall, on a visit to Dubai, Ali was confronted with the fear and sense of division that people in the Middle East were feeling. The source of fear in part was the the campaign rhetoric they were hearing from the United States. When he returned, Ali said, “I told them about you.” What Ali told his family, friends and business associates is what we have both learned through our engagement in the message of Unity that is the heart of The Well’s mission. That beyond culture and religion and any other dividing wall, we are more alike than different: that we are connected through a much greater reality that reveals that we are indeed ONE…that we are all descendants of the same God made of the same stardust and evolving out of the same Earth. There are those of us who know that LOVE is the answer.

As people gathered at The Well post-election, they gathered in grief. They did not grieve because their candidate lost. They grieved because the thin fabric of unity has been torn and hatred, fear and division are breaking through.

Hope also surfaced. Because those gathered know this truth: rooted in the mystical knowing of our Oneness and responding out of the wisdom that is born in deep contemplation, we can and will strengthen the fabric of love.

But we can’t do it without your support. We need your presence, your commitment to our vision that “All is One,” and your financial resources to continue to be a place of deepening love and unity, hope and healing. I trust that as we join together in this way LOVE will indeed be born this Christmas season!

Please consider making a Christmas gift to The Well in another’s name as a sign of our solidarity with all. “If not now, tell me when.”

In hope,
Bridget Sperduto
Executive Director