"I am neither North, South, East or West but feel at home in all tepees. No boundaries exist in my breast; no cultural walls separate my mind from the thoughts that concern you and no hurt that ever touches you can leave me unmoved by your suffering. You are my earth neighbour and my heavenly companion and it is my fervent wish that we continue to walk side-by-side through this troubled world as brothers and sisters in Christ and humanity.
I remember being asked by one of my children when they were young if someone who lived at the bottom of our road where we lived, lived close enough to us to be our neighbour or was it only Jenny and her husband,Terry who lived next door? I have often pondered such a question and found my own conclusion from some written works many years ago.
When we ask, 'But who is my neighbour? Is it the person who lives in the house next door or the one three doors along; or the next street, the adjacent town, the bordering county or even across the sea in another country or on another continent? How will I know?'
My reply today is, if you can see their sadness and pain writ large across their face or know their abject poverty that is circumscribed by their non-access to the wealth and privileges you and I enjoy, if you can sense their soul of muted expectation or feel their emotional burden buckle and strain beneath the worrying load they carry, then call them neighbour, for they truly are!'" William Forde: May 11th, 2018.