Please send us personal reflections of Beloved Community in your life
in the form of poetry, musings, images, or audio/video recordings.
You can submit as much and as often as you like.There is no deadline. Your contributions will become part of the existing Beloved Community web pages. This web space will remain online indefinitely, growing over time.
Suggestions:
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Explore any theme, any aspect of Beloved Community that you can imagine, whether we talked about it in Living Sufism or not. You might help us see something we didn’t touch on in the program.
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Use this as an opportunity to discover other voices and perspectives within you, new ways of recognizing and describing Beloved Community.
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Make this a chilla in which you challenge yourself to allow sincerity to overrule self-criticism— the primary inhibitor of creative expression for many of us. This is not an exercise in aesthetics, but an exploration of the heart of reality.
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If you’re stuck for an idea, visit the Beloved Community wesite . You might use the “islands”--Original You, Wonder, The Sacred Story, Embracing Paradox, Most Right Thing, Whoosh and Wish—as points of embarkation.
You'll find technical pointers for the type of file you wish to submit along with a button for uploading below. If you need technical assistance of any kind email Puran: puran@sufiway.com .
PLEASE NOTE: Depending on their size, files can take some time to upload. Please do not close the page until you have seen the ’Thank you for submitting notice’ appear below the Submit button. Uploading ideo files can be tricky; please contact Puran (puran@sufiway.org) if you need help with your videos and for the most effective way to submit them.
T E X T
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If you’re stuck getting started you might begin with a phrase such as, ”For me Beloved Community is…” or “I am beloved community when…”.
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If you feel you have nothing to say, you might quote and comment on some passage that for you reveals Beloved Community.
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You might create a “word cloud”... An array of words in a non-linear space. For example, here: https://www.wordclouds.com/.
IMAGES
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Most phones have really good cameras (both still and video) these days, no need for extra photo equipment. And there are free or inexpensive camera apps which can increase your creative range. (For example: Camera+ 2 for iPhone; Open Camera for Android.
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Most tablets have cameras as well; plus there are a number of drawing apps that enable you to draw and paint (with your fingers or a stylus) right on your tablet . For iPads the app Procreate is pretty much all you need; for Android tablets — InspirARTion.
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Want to create an animated image? You can make animated .gifs for free, here: https://giphy.com/create/gifmaker ?
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There are also collage makers online which might inspire montage making. (E.g : https://www.befunky.com/create/collage/ ) .
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Want to add a quotation or other text in a fancy font to your images? You can do that easily here: https://addtext.com/.
RECORDINGS
AUDIO TIPS:
As with cameras, phones and tablets come with simple apps which allow you to record your voice and even do some editing. More advanced apps like Voice Recorder & Audio Editor for the iPhone & iPad, or Rev Audio & Voice Recorder for Android have added convenience and editing features.
No need to be overly concerned with the audio quality so long as there is little or no background noise. In most cases we should be able to improve the sound quality before we post on the web. You can significantly improve the audio with most devices by using an external mic.
Here are some ideas of what you might record:
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share some poetry or passages from relevant works;
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describe what you see; put into words a particular experience of Beloved Community;
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give us your thoughts on how we might be more aware of and present in Beloved Community;
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radio theater—write a short play or vignette and record it even if you have to voice all the parts yourself;
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tell a story, imaginary or recounting a memory.
VIDEO TIPS:
The camera apps mentioned above will also work for video recordings. In addition to using your phone or tablet to record video (tripod recommended) you also have quite good video recording capability right in Zoom.
To record with Zoom:
Click the Record button on the bottom menu bar. You can record either to your computer which will then allow you to edit your video. Or you can record to the Cloud in which case you can just send Puran (puran@sufiway.org) the link.
Here are some ideas of what you might record:
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sharing poetry or reading passages from relevant works as well as telling life or ‘sufi” stories can be enhanced by your visible presence. And by selecting a location which enhances your video. (The Virtual Background feature on Zoom allows you to put almost anything you could imagine in the background.);
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take us on a walk around your town or through your favorite nature places; help us see what you see and how it reflects Beloved Community (a selfie stick or gimbal can help you keep the camera steady);
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a conversation with someone or an “interview” can bring the reality of Beloved Community into focus, especially with real life examples; if needed, we can help you edit it;
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you could sing or perform music (good mic recommended); you might even be tempted to record yourself in multipart harmonies with Acapella, an app for Mac and PC that enables you to harmonize with yourself on several tracks.
Uploading video files can be tricky; please contact Puran (puran@sufiway.org) if you need help with your videos and for the most effective way to submit them.