Standing in the street - #StandWithAleppo - NaBloPoMo continues

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Hi, well I just have to do something to #StandWithAleppo

Please join me to stand in silence outside the Friends Meeting House on St Giles at 10 am tomorrow. It will be cold. Bring a sign with that hashtag on it if you can.

10am - 11am Thursday 1st December 2016 OX1 3LW

Standing for 5 minutes is very helpful, then go on to do what you need to do.

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#StandWithAleppo event this morning:

It's amazing being still on a street with everything moving around me, I could see the still buildings, still cars and trees. There were so many wheels rolling smoothly, all those cars and vans.

Each person walking past looked beautiful in the sunshine, each with their own choice of colours of clothing and bag. We are all so varied.

One man so obviously came from Aleppo, his face was familiar. I just knew. He looked across from the other side of the pavement to read the message instantly while walking along with his companions.

Some other people came over and confided their feelings to me. I encouraged them, said it was ok to feel like that.

I asked a few people to write their first names on the sheet and said I had a desk. They all jumped with surprise :) There was a convenient grey metal box by the wall for electricity or something, just right as my desk!

Most of the time I stood there looking straight through the buildings opposite, just being there, standing patiently, thinking.

The sun really does move fast, I saw the light start to catch the rough paintwork of a one room wide building on the other side of the street. It's my favourite house now, I'd never noticed it before. It's 4 stories, each window is different. It is well kept.

What I found out was what I suspected already, there are so many people out there who follow the news to the extent they can bear to and do care, but don't know what to do to help.

The other thing I discovered is how fantastically supportive the Quakers are, they just said fine, of course you can do that outside the building, so I wasn't on my own doing it, I had a whole building and a whole set of people behind me. I had decided I'd stand beside a tree near by if they had said it was contrary to their ethos. I also found out that the sun shines there in the mornings, convenient :)

End of report.