Be-Friend Interfaith Friendship Project

“Friendship is intimate and ordinary. It can also be revolutionary.” - Dana Robert

This semester-long interfaith friendship project is designed for participants to go deep and to talk about the things that matter: our values, our sense of purpose, and our questions about life. You will learn the skill of active listening while experimenting with shared spiritual practices from different religious and philosophical traditions. Participants will be paired in dyads and will commit to spending an hour together each week as well as an extra half hour in private reflection. Several of our chaplains have contributed to the program offering a diverse array of spiritual practices, including nature walks, meditation exercises, listening to music, deep reading—of poetry, art, the world, our lives and one another. All Tufts students, staff, and faculty, are welcome to join (please note: students will be paired with fellow students, and faculty and staff will be paired together).

Contact Catholic Chaplain Lynn Cooper if you have any questions. Undergraduates, graduate students, staff, faculty, and alumni and are all invited to participate. The program will begin the first week of October. You can sign up for Be-Friend here.

Giuli Perini's, A21 photo and reflection, which were part of an exercise from our Buddhist Chaplain on exploring Inter-Being, our how our existence is inextricably linked to one another and the natural world.

In one of my favorite assignments for the program, my friend and I were asked to select a song that spoke to us. I chose the song "Wild Life" from OneRepublic. I first listened to this song when I watched the movie "Clouds." The song is part of the soundtrack of this movie. I think what stuck out to me was the lyrics of the song, since it talks about the beauty of every day and calls to don't stand because life keeps going while we do nothing. "Dive or step right in but please don't stay" says a part of the song. I think this calls us to chase our dreams and reminds us that life is beautiful, and that we should use our time wisely.