New Citizens Becoming

In the building where I work, I have the privilege and delight to walk several mornings a week past a class for people who have immigrated to America, who are learning what they need to know in order to become U.S. citizens. The class is taught but by a lovely man who cares deeply for those who are coming to his class, and I hear phrases as I walk past as he teaches about particular parts of the English language, or as he talks with caring attention about basic concepts of America and citizenship. I feel that he expresses part of the spirit that is embodied in Statue of Liberty, in caring so for those who have come here seeking a new life.

This class includes many people from Russia, and I am touched by their particularities of custom and demeanor, as well as what seems a kind of humility in the willingness to learn. Many are middle aged or older, and beginning a new life in America at this time in their lives. On a recent morning, as one class was leaving and another group arriving, I heard the instructor say “Dasvidanya” (Russian for “Goodbye”) several times to people who had just finished the first class. I then I heard a woman who must have been just arriving to the next class say “Good Morning!” with great warmth and delight. I imagined this came from her being pleased to be at the class, as well as from a sense of pride to express herself in a language she may have only recently learned. As I passed further down the hall, I heard her say something in Russian – I don’t know what it was, but it soundly to me like “Babooska” (“Grandmother”). Whatever word she actually said, I felt the fullness of her heart in it, and it felt as if she was saying: “I am here, and I bring the fullness of what is in my heart to this my new life in America”.

I salute the spirit of caring that lives within each heart that welcomes others, and the generosity of heart that shares the gifts one has received.

And I honor the choice of each person who immigrates to this country, and seeks to become part of America – each bringing within them their unique gifts of heart and soul, and life.


posted on "Prayers for a New America"
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