Our friend and lifetime member over at PLAN, Michelle MacDonald, shared this poem:

DON'T LAUGH AT ME
I'm a little boy with glasses
The one they call a geek
A little girl who never smiles
'Cause I have braces on my teeth
And I know how it feels to cry myself to sleep
I'm that kid on every playground
Who's always chosen last
A single teenage mother
Tryin' to overcome my past
You don't have to be my friend
But is it too much to ask
Don't laugh at me
Don't call me names
Don't get your pleasure from my pain
In God's eyes we're all the same
Someday we'll all have perfect wings
Don't laugh at me
I'm the beggar on the corner
You've passed me on the street
And I wouldn't be out here beggin'
If I had enough to eat
And don't think I don't notice
That our eyes never meet
Don't laugh at me
Don't call me names
Don't get your pleasure from my pain
In God's eyes we're all the same
Someday we'll all have perfect wings
Don't laugh at me
I'm fat, I'm thin, I'm short, I'm tall
I'm deaf, I'm blind, yes, I think in a way, we’re all
I’m black, I’m white and I am brown
I’m Christian, I’m Jewish, and I am Muslim
I’m gay, I’m lesbian, I’m American Indian
I’m very, very young, I’m quite aged
I’m very wealthy, I’m very, very poor
Don't laugh at me
Don't call me names
Don't get your pleasure from my pain
In God's eyes we're all the same
Someday we'll all have perfect wings
Don't laugh at me
BY

(Steve Seskin/Allen Shamblin)

Plan Institute, L'Arche Canada and L'Agora formally launched an inspirational body of thought and dialogue, in the form of a website, entitled Belonging - Living Ties.

The homepage hosts this quote from Jean Vanier, "The longer we journey on the road to inner healing and wholeness, the more the sense of belonging grows and deepens. The sense is not just one of belonging to others and to a community. It is a sense of belonging to the universe, to the earth, to the air, to the water, to everything that lives, to all humanity."

The opening of this new website is accompanied by timely blog posts by Jacques Dufresne, Al Etmanski and Nathan Ball.