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This Is Us


As difficult as it has been to live within the confines of the current quarantine, the creativity that has arisen to honor and celebrate special people and occasions has been heartwarming. Birthday drive-by parades, prom photos from home, visits with neighbors from porch and sidewalk. Public health guidelines make most of our usual celebrations off limits for now. But they cannot suppress natural human joy.

 Today’s story comes from our Muslim neighbors at Dar Al Taqwa. When I saw it on Facebook I immediately asked to share it here. 



A message from the Dar Al Taqwa Board of Directors:

 Greetings to our beloved community and wonderful neighbors!

 We at Dar Al Taqwa want to wish everyone a beautiful Memorial Day weekend and an Eid Mubarak to our Muslim friends and families!

 This weekend marks the first of our high holidays, Eid Al Fitr, that celebrates the culmination of fasting during the holy month of Ramadan.

 Due to the pandemic, we decided to turn COVID into a 'COV-EID' for our community members who have been unable to celebrate our holy month and holiday the way we normally would: together.

 Over the last few months, we've all had to adapt our celebrations. We've seen and heard street parades, car honks, and loud music as community members have celebrated birthdays and graduating seniors. While at any other time this might have been considered noise, it has reminded us that JOY cannot be quarantined!

 Working with Jason Levinson Entertainment, we hired clowns, jugglers, stilt walkers, and a unicyclist. Even Pikachu made a grand entrance! We provided pastries and goody bags, and to uplift the spirits of children and families as they drove through this parade, we set up a speaker playing holiday songs in the back of our property next to our building. To cap off the end of our festive 'drive-thru,' cars were sprayed with a fun bubble foam machine!

 We are so grateful to everyone for their patience, support, and cooperation as we all do the best we can during these very difficult times. We also were happy to thank our first responders, police officers, and essential workers with pastry boxes to show them how grateful we are for their hard work and dedication, today and everyday. We are appreciative of their hard work that allows us to stay safe and celebrate!

 Thank you and greetings of peace!!
*****

Learning about this event at Dar Al Taqwa is both a window for me into the culture of a religious community different than my own, but also a mirror of the deep yearnings I feel to be connected to others. We have the opportunity to see ourselves in every single quarantine celebration. Each one is an expression of the human spirit we all share. 

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