Walk, Picnic and Enjoy Beauty at Sycamore Hill Gardens May 19

You'll see a wide variety of flowers, plants and trees on your self-guided tour through the gardens. Photo from Syracamore Hill Gardens.

WTB’s May event is an afternoon at the private Sycamore Hill Gardens in Marcellus on Sunday, May 19 from 1-4 p.m.  Bring your friends or family to see the lake, sculpture and beautiful gardens. You can even bring a picnic lunch and share it on the grounds. It’s also a great location for a family photo.

It’s a WTB fundraiser as well, but moderately-priced. Advance sale tickets are $5. Call or email Betsy Wiggins at 446-1694 or bwiggins<at>twcny.rr.com to reserve tickets.  You’ll pay $10 at the door.

Special features this year are a trio of musicians playing in one of the gardens, a time of Buddhist meditation by the pond, and henna hand painting.

This is just one of many sculptures throughout the gardens. Photo from Sycamore Hill Gardens.

Book Club Meets Mon., May 20

The book,  A Woman Among Warlords by Malalai Joya, will be discussed Monday, May 20.  The author  was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2010.

Amazon.com published this about the book:  “An extraordinary young woman raised in the refugee camps of Iran and Pakistan, Joya became a teacher in secret girls’ schools, hiding her books under her burqa so the Taliban couldn’t find them; she helped establish a free medical clinic and orphanage in her impoverished home province of Farah; and at a constitutional assembly in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2003, she stood up and denounced her country’s powerful NATO-backed warlords.”

Contact Jennifer Roberts Crittenden for information about the location and time: 633 2817.

Interfaith Journey to the Tent of Abraham Drew 200 Walkers

Walkers leave the masjid on Comstock Avenue after learning about Islam.

We started with a blessing for “journeying” through the bright spring afternoon, and we ended four hours later singing together, “Let There Be Peace on Earth” at an interfaith chapel.

About 200 people walked through the university area, April 28, hearing short seminars on the history of buildings and the traditions of many faiths: Methodist, Episcopal, Reformed Jew, Roman Catholic, Islam, and Pagan, before a concluding ceremony in the interfaith chapel on the Syracuse University campus.

“This was really interesting,” was a common comment heard as people left Hendricks Chapel after the final gathering.

The theme for the day’s walk was taken from the story of the Biblical character Abraham welcoming strangers into his tent. Three faiths — Jew, Muslims and Christian –trace their heritage to this ancestor.  For more background, click here:  Journey To the Tent of Abraham.

For a photo essay of the day see  syracuse.com (when you get to the page, click the next button to see other photos)

Members of Grace Episcopal Church told us how this congregation struggled through history for civil and human rights.

Kudos to Ann Port (l) and Danya Wellmon (r) who coordinated the day, along with all the other volunteers who made it such an inspiring event.

  (c) 2013 Women Transcending Boundaries, Inc.

PO Box 6847 | Syracuse | NY | 13217