This image is all that I need to remind me that forgiveness and healing is always possible.

It’s in times like these that we need to find examples of hope that a world where “enemies” — divided by our own made up borders — can still become more than just neighbours, but the closest of friends.

For three years, dozens of families led by these two men lived side by side in a micro-village built for refugees that had survived and escaped the horrors of ISIS who had ransacked their homes.

These two men represented families of different ethnic backgrounds, religious beliefs, and opposing cultural practices. In any other circumstances, they would be considered enemies. However, their lives were bound together through survival — I witnessed them daily share their food, water, electricity and their lives. Their children went to school together, the adults sat together and processed their pain and loss together.

They walked the long hard road of healing together and on they way discovered that their had not just survived, they had learnt to thrive.

And so, when the time came for them to part ways, because of the courageous decision for their families to return and rebuild their homes now liberated from ISIS, this became the moment I witnessed the power of love, forgiveness and hope.

You simply can’t tell me that peace isn’t possible — that Shalom is not worth fighting for!

“What if the borders that divide us are not the lines we find on a map but the walls we build in our hearts and minds?”

I think it’s time to tear down some walls and erase the borders we’ve fooled ourselves into believing divided us.

Thanks @missjessieparks for capturing this moment, forever etched in my memory.

Most of all, thank you Abu Raed & Mam Fahsool for teaching us all that courage and kindness has the power to obliterate the unnecessary borders we create in our hearts and minds.