Honouring our differences, by Gareth Davies

Over the last nine months, I've been privileged to meet and to work with diverse miraculous people. Some Christian, some Buddhist, some Jewish, some Pagan, Rastafari. Some English, Australian, Italian, Iranian, Iraqi and Kurd. And then there's the Welsh. I have have drawn inspiration from grandmothers. Palestinian, Israeli, both who have suffered and lost and yet walk hand in hand, to lead the procession, to show that it can be done. Young people, old people, children of every age.

Wet people, hot people, mud people. Fresh people, tired people, inspired people. Music and silence and festival crazy dancers and those who sit still with a tree. Laughter and tears and buckets of hope. Chefs and mechanics and doctors and poets and Tango in the night, and for that matter the day. In all that diversity, humanity. Respect and the heart to bring love, bring honour, make something beautiful, an offering, a sacrament here.

But mostly we plant and we grow and we harvest. We compost and weed. We clean and we cook and we dine together. We slither and slide in the mud. We push and we chop and we carry. We meet every morning to share and to pray, to make blessing upon the day.

But of all the faiths and traditions and places above, the people I meet here are human. Well apart from the cat, and the chickens, and Cooper, who is a dog. So what faith am I? Well of that I have always been clear. It isn't for me to tell you. It's for you to tell me. If I act with the love, the compassion of Christ you may call me a Christian. If I tear down the sky with my rage, then possibly a follower of Thor. If I honour the ancestors, am one with the mother, if I speak to the fire and whisper the waters deep, then call me a pagan proud. By all that they tell me, 'Away with the fairies' is mostly the one for me.

But when actions are what are required, then I'm handy with a cabbage and I know how to boil a potato.

I still don't know how to just stop those who murder the world with their prejudice, hatred or greed. But I do know that we can do better. I see it and breath it every day.

Written By Gareth Davies, a treasured community member.