Abkhazian Dinner Event In Motion: Behind The Scenes

Who would have thought that a March day, especially a day before St. Patrick's Day, would see Sue and I sitting outdoors in the sunshine, preparing our program for March 25. But there we were, yesterday, in 70 degree plus weather, co-creating, plotting and planning our fourth Abkhazian Dinner working together; happy as we could be, doing one of the things we've come to excel at over the past five or six years; co-creating.

No doubt, today, spring is on
its way.

Our coming event is to be the sixth or seventh Abkhazian Dinner event New Horizons has presented since 2000. We had intended to present many Abkhazian Dinners since that inaugural event. We wanted so much to share the wisdom and the teachings Murat Yagan has generously gifted to us, as well as to the many others whose lives he has touched.

We wanted people around us to take a look at these teachings as a means of doing our part to build a healthier, more harmonious U.S.A. However, my eye surgeries and the overall wear and tear on me during my years of being blind and recovering from that challenge (1998 – 2006) rearranged that priority.

But we are back on track now, if we will be so blessed and ever so happy to be so!

There is much to share; so many stories of my own personal journey of transformation, intrinsically interwoven with how critically important community is to me. Murat brought the certainty into my life that we can, intentionally, co-create AWE in our communities. This is a whole series of stories by itself; Murat's, the stories of others around him who live this truth and my own. Then there are Sue's stories. And, now, for our Abkhazian Dinner event we have, also, added the stories of our guest presenter, Mayor Deborah Burgoyne of Burkittsville, Maryland.

The main story for our Abkhazian Dinner event will, delightfully, be Murat's "Bus Ride Story" which we intend to introduce as a way of inviting community-unity building storytelling (as time allows) for our event guests. This story is a powerful community building story, if I ever heard one. It is excerpted from Murat’s “Building Up A Kebzeh Community” monograph which will be on sale at our Abkhazian Dinner event.

Storytelling, as the Possible Human, Possible Society Study has made me appreciate more than ever is one of the most impactful vehicles for clearing a path to peace. It leaves us knowing the truth that "an enemy is someone whose story we have not yet heard."

Now I am off to sit outside, again, in the warm sunshine, polishing up my own opening story for the dinner. I think this planning process is about to bring forth a few more stories of our behind the scenes preparation process. So please come back for more as we head into our final Abkhazian Dinner preparations. (I hope I don’t end up here promising more than I can deliver. My recent blog posting track record has not been much.)