Caught in another traffic jam, my husband and I agreed: “Right this minute, half the people in Greater Boston are sitting bumper-to-bumper, the other half work on the construction projects that block all this traffic.” Today, walking home from East Somerville, I glanced at the horizon and saw a skyline I’d never seen before. Where had those buildings sprung from? Iconic Somerville hotspots like Johnnny D’s? Razed. My auto mechanic’s shop, just down the street, has been usurped by a glitzy new building touting million-dollar condo’s. What? And while I know that it’s normal for people my age to view a changing world with bewilderment and alarm, the disruption and displacement and gentrification happening in my formerly working-class neighborhood right now is not a normal I can accept. Far worse, after what happened on the Senate floor Friday night, I can no longer recognize my country.
Last week my yoga teacher shared this poem with our class. Perfect timing, right?
Lost
Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.
David Wagoner
(1999)
Dear Patricia,
Well, hello, there, Patricia, and greetings and salutations to you and to you AND FOR VERY ESPECIALLY FOR YOU FOR ALWAYS, my so, so very FOR ALWAYS awesomely precious and dearly special FOR ALWAYS soul sistahfriend Christian Quaker woman who you’re FOR ALWAYS so, so very much!!!!!!! 🙂 <3 WOW, Patricia, WOW here!!!! What a beautifully brilliant and sensitive in such a deeply heartfelt, profound, and poignant manner blog post article this is here by ABSOLUTELY AWESOME YOU, my so, so very dearest and darling friend!!!!!! 🙂 <3 Sister, I know what you mean here and I'm with you here with your dismay that the very engaging and iconic Johnny D's has been demolished and how the auto repair shop has been razed to so infuriatingly pave the way for outlandishly priced condos that price out the former many working class folks who once dwelled in your great neighborhood, Patricia. It is just very egregious that affordable housing isn't being built which is such a dire need. I notice similar patterns here where I live in my beloved Iowa City, Iowa, sistah. In my precious city they keep building ginormously expensive housing instead of building more affordable housing which there is such an extreme shortage of for certain. WOW, I just love the marvelous link about Johnny D's, Patricia. It proved to be very interesting reading, sistahfriend! WOW, I thank-YOU so, so much for how you've as usual as always once again have featured and included such a very interesting link here, Patricia, providing such great food for thought! I'm with you here, my absolutely SUPER sistah, in not accepting these very unfair and harsh realities and outcomes with all you very sagaciously shared and declared about here. We must all never ever give up and never ever lose heart, never ever lose spirit, and never ever lost Spirit. As I think of the very timely and apt title of your very powerful blog post article here, Patricia, with the very chock full of such impact picture perfect picture accompanying it I truly think, feel, and believe that we all can somehow make it as we very gingerly navigate the very tricky terrain of all of the very troubling circumstances which we face, endure, and experience like with the lack of affordable housing, iconic places being destroyed and replaced with high cost housing and other buildings, gentrification, the horrid abuses and injustices spewing out of that so called president and administration and from areas of our government, and with all of the very petrifying and unfair situations we are all dealing with right now. We can make it somehow someway in finding and making a way out of no way and EVEN when we deal with such harsh and harmful discomfort we will be give the strength by our SO, SO VERY SWEET, LOVING, POWERFUL SPIRIT to cope with whatever comes our way, my dear, dearest, precious Patricia!!!!!!! 🙂 <3 My heart and spirit meets your very heart and spirit here, my so, so very dearest and darling friend as you so openly bare your so, so very dear heart and spirit in sharing and declaring here that you no longer recognize our country. I sure know what you mean here, my so, so very dearest and darling sister, Patricia!!!! There is hope, though, and we all can and will persevere and not only survive as we all have survived before throughout history and time but also as we overcome we will be immensely blessed with thriving in our dear country which can and will be healed and will become and better and more positive country for each and every one of us so chock full of such overflowing bountiful blessings for one and for all, Patricia!!!!!!! 🙂 <3 I really believe this with all that I have with all of my very being and I aim to be a black Pollyanna!!!!!!! 🙂 <3 Our Good God will see us all through somehow someway and make a way out of no way come what may, my so, so very precious sistahfriend, Patricia!!!!!! 🙂 <3
WOW, how brilliant your absolutely WONDERFUL yoga instructor, Annie Hoffman, is for sure in offering this very timely and apt poem by astounding David Wagoner at your very empowering yoga class, Patricia!!!! WOW, Annie is just very full of such astute and acute sagacity, Patricia, and what an awesome and blessedly and spiritually attuned woman she is for certain, Patricia!!!!! I so love how very deeply empowering Annie Hoffman spoke to this very outstanding poem during your super yoga class!!!!! WOW!!!!!! I feel even better with even more greatly added cheer by what absolutely AWESOME Annie has offered here and with YOU, dear, dearest Patricia, with this very touching blog post article all in all very much emboldening me to keep on keeping on in keeping my very faith and hope alive with my sweetly abiding and enduring positive optimism!!!!! I feel even more encouraged and inspired to be willing and even wanting to continue suiting up and showing up for duty in my journey and process of persisting, resisting, and interrupting, my sistahs!!!!!! 🙂 <3 Sistahfriend, YOU are my life and eternal blessings and I thank-YOU and Spirit continually FOR YOU and FOR YOUR VERY PRESENCE IN MY VERY LIFE, Patricia!!!!!! 🙂 <3 WOW!!!! YAY!!!!! YAY for YOU, Patricia!!!! WOW!!!!!! YAY YAY YAY YAY!!!!!!! SIisterfriend, what a sheer joyous blessing it is for me to very eagerly read all of your masterful compositions and other writings and to very joyfully respond with my very heartfelt, detailed, and thorough thoughts, ideas, and comments, and it's just so, so very much fun for me, too!!!!!! YOU, Patricia, are such a joy and blessing, and so are your very spectacular blog post articles and other great writings, and all you do so, so very well in doing your absolutely very best in such a diligently conscientious manner with all you do straight from your very precious and so, so very dear heart and spirit!!!!!! 🙂 <3 Please have such a superbly super Sunday, a wondrously wonderful rest of your weekend, and may all of your very days be so, so very especially blessed, Patricia!!!!! Spirit so, so very much loves and cherishes YOU A WHOLE LOT AND SO DO I A WHOLE BUNCH, Patricia!!!!! 🙂 <3 YOU are just the very greatest and the best, Patricia, and such a BLESSING FOR ALWAYS!!!!!! 🙂 <3
Very Warmly and Sincerely FOR ALWAYS, my so, so very awesomely special and dearly precious soul sistahfriend Christian Quaker white woman who you're FOR ALWAYS SO, SO VERY MUCH, my sisterfriend, Patricia, with MY and SPIRIT'S VERY PEACE AND LOVE FOR YOU FOR ALWAYS, sister of mine, and with SUCH BLESSINGS AND SUCH VERY EVEN MORE BLESSINGS FOR YOU FOR ALWAYS, friend of mine, 🙂 <3
YOURS FOR ALWAYS soul sistahfriend Christian black woman AND FOR ALWAYS in the very great spirit of unity and solidarity, Sherry Gordon in Iowa City, Iowa 🙂 <3