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Melanie Gin
Melanie Gin

136 Followers

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Jan 3, 2021

Welcoming this body to 2021

An annual love letter to myself Dear one, It is time to lay your body down to rest. Offer your torso and legs a bed of wildflowers, your head a soft pillow of grasses. Nearby invite the lichen and mushrooms to hum a quiet winter song: the song of the moss covering the oak trees, the…

4 min read

Welcoming this body to 2021
Welcoming this body to 2021

4 min read


Jul 23, 2020

kickboxing and joy

Today a friend and I were both feeling down, so I proposed we do yoga together over Zoom video. Can I be honest with you, Melanie? They said. I don’t want to do yoga right now. I am so angry, I want to hit something. I responded, kickboxing? Here is…

Joy

2 min read

Joy

2 min read


Dec 26, 2019

This is it

Saying yes to life — There’s a line in the Heart Sutra: When there are no more obstacles in the mind, you overcome all illbeing. Suffering is, because there is no clarity on the nature of interbeing. When I see my teacher in all things, I do not fear missing his physical body. He is…

5 min read

5 min read


Jul 23, 2019

Navigating the barriers to an open heart

The race to submit eight Palestinian visa applications in time for waking up at Plum Village In two weeks, I will journey with a group of Palestinian and Israeli friends to Plum Village, a Buddhist monastery near fields of clay and sunflowers in southern France. We’ll participate in the Wake Up Earth retreat, a gathering of 600 young people from all over the world, sharing aspirations…

10 min read

Navigating the barriers to an open heart
Navigating the barriers to an open heart

10 min read


Jul 14, 2019

Articulating a framework of belief for operations in Palestine

Inclusivity, wise speech and communication, systems change, and taking good care A recent interaction with an NGO in Bethlehem motivated me to articulate and formalize the beliefs and vision underpinning my work in Palestine. This set of beliefs will provide a framework for decision-making and clarify my interactions with partner NGOs in Palestine and Israel moving forward. Inclusivity Systemic change towards a…

4 min read

Articulating a framework of belief for operations in Palestine
Articulating a framework of belief for operations in Palestine

4 min read


Jul 6, 2019

Women paving the path of peace

My encounters with three women teachers at the European Institute for Applied Buddhism in Germany (and other happy news) Shelley Anderson. Her shirt declared her belief in a better South. Her story, woven across cultures and conflicts, touched me deeply. Originally from the United States, Shelley moved to the Netherlands and committed her adult life to empowering women towards peace. In 1997, Shelley initiated the Women’s Peacemakers Program within…

6 min read

Women paving the path of peace
Women paving the path of peace

6 min read


May 9, 2019

We’re all doing the holy work

Summoning the courage to open our hearts to each other — Ceramic tiles in a junkyard in Bethlehem Today, I went out into the world looking for twenty pieces of ceramic tile. I had no clue whether any Palestinian in Bethlehem would know what I was talking about, much less have any plain square pieces to sell me. I wandered from my house with one hypothesis, that I…

11 min read

We’re all doing the holy work
We’re all doing the holy work

11 min read


May 2, 2019

Crafting islands with raw almonds, poppies, and 20 kids from Dheisheh

And other stories from Bethlehem, Jericho, and Jerusalem — I’ve brought you materials to make your own islands, I told the kids, pointing to the giant bag of dirt I had lugged through the shuk of Bethlehem. They lit up. Let’s do it now, they said. I marveled. They had flat-out refused to imagine islands in their minds, yet…

8 min read

Crafting islands with raw almonds, poppies, and 20 kids from Dheisheh
Crafting islands with raw almonds, poppies, and 20 kids from Dheisheh

8 min read


Apr 18, 2019

Exploring privilege in walnuts and taxi fares

One week in Haifa and Bethlehem — A few days ago, a young Palestinian woman at the laundromat cafe mistakenly put a single walnut into our salad. I bit into the walnut and was immediately aware of the crunch of nut in my mouth. I spit out the mouthful and examined the contents. Anger and indignation arose…

8 min read

8 min read


Apr 10, 2019

The way out is in…terbeing

Peace and conflict in bus rides and meditation — I was on an Arab bus in Jerusalem when they appeared like shadows from the darkness of night. Two young bodies in drab green carrying machine guns, they bypassed me without a second glance. I, cloaked in the body of an Asian tourist, did not have my American passport on…

6 min read

The way out is in…terbeing
The way out is in…terbeing

6 min read

Melanie Gin

Melanie Gin

136 Followers

Social entrepreneur, creative, engineer. I like to make things and tell stories.

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