There are times in life that you experience another person’s life story in a way that really resonates with you. You feel their sadness, joy, anger, frustration, confusion and/or love as they tell you how their worldview was shaped. Each of us is a combination of our experience, shaped through our family, community and world our perspective is a tapestry of not only how those interactions with others has occurred, but also our response to them. My experience here in Belfast has been profound in seeing how resilience and courage come together with family and community ties to shape each person’s life. While there are strong similarities and binding identities within communities there are also the different responses that each person has to those identities.
I now have an even stronger sense of appreciation for how the people I have met are turning extremely hard experiences and differing community and personal identities into working towards a common goal. Experiencing their courage and resilience as they do such important work is inspiring, especially in the way each of them brings their own worldview into working on that goal. It is an important lesson in how a community with such a difficult past can bond together to accomplish amazing feats.