Thanksgiving Coffee Company

Last Sunday evening, around the world, people broke the month-long fast of Ramadan. Throughout this past month, observing Muslims have fasted daily from sunrise until sundown. This is a time of great personal reflection, a time to ask for forgiveness, and pray for guidance. By abstaining from excesses and focusing inward toward self and to achieving closeness to God, a process of personal purification occurs.

This coming Friday at sundown marks the beginning of the High Holidays, the ten day period at the start of the Jewish New Year. The days between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur are a culmination of a period of self-examination and repentance. On Yom Kippur a fast from sundown to sundown ushers in the New Year and the fast is broken with family or community at day’s end.

In spite of differences in aspects of observance, these traditions share common goals: self-reflection, closeness to God, a time to ask for forgiveness for human transgressions, and a desire for clarity moving forward. It is one more reminder of commonalities we have across our global community. Many of us, through religious observance or simply in consciousness in our daily lives, try to make time for self examination and strive to achieve a renewed clarity moving forward. For some this may be in the act of a New Year’s resolution, for others the contemplation of life on a birthday. No matter what, as humans we have a shared goal: to be better people in a world that we care for and that cares for us.

In Uganda, some of the Peace Kawomera Cooperative’s members have finished observing Ramadan, others are preparing for the Jewish New Year, others are thinking about how they can take better care of their families in the coming year. This year’s coffee harvest is just a few months away, now is the time to unite with the global community and think about changes you can make as a consumer, as a person of faith, as someone committed to making this world better for all of us.

This entry was posted by jz on Monday, September 14th, 2009 at 4:44 pm and is filed under Sharing with you..., Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.