Outraged at articles portraying stark realities of Venezuelan
immigrants among others, desperate to depart the dearest
countries of their birth, as our ancestors did, once
upon a not too distant time;
Freedom is what we all long for, not the liberties seized
by the conquerors; simply instead the freedom to authentically
make our way in the world, to whet our creative spirits
on the grindstone of progress, yet a stone which is cleanly
cleaved and has not yet gathered moss;
Freedom I tasted as a small child, balance beaming
along the sides of our small catamaran up to the bow, grabbing
the cleats tight and bouncing with the wake waves,
dragging my long tanned arms as they cut through the arced wall
of luminous green blue water like liquid glass, watching as it curved
away from the hull; the mist, the salty taste, the sea, the open sky;
And then there was the time the coast guard stopped all that,
not safe they said, get back into the boat, take a seat,
end your childhood right there and then, do again
what you have been faithfully attending to every day
in school when all a body longed for was anything
but slumping and staring at chalk-powdered blackboards,
and I loved learning but not in that stilted rote way, bound
and virtually gagged as a woman lashed to a stake
and burned for her unquenchable thirst for knowledge;
Experiencing the feel of flat green petiole flesh
of giant redwoods and Douglas conifers or rolling the round
powdery bluish needles of the spruce between fingers - texture
of bark and long pine needles under foot, the pungent forest
perfume - we are all travelers on this extraordinary journey,
all children of Creation, all One with the four leggeds and two,
the birds, the squirrels, all of them, all of life;
And I wonder who ever noticed small snakes slithering
under the border wall, migrating hummingbirds freely zooming
through the saguaros of the Sonoran desert, and who are we,
the self important, secure in our bank financed homes,
who are we to direct the course of events for those souls
fleeing conditions our greedy nations have shaped
through hoarding resources meant for all to enjoy
and then warring for more until the land yields
not so much as a verdant blade;
The green green Colorado River we fished in as kids,
pulling steelhead trout into the boat or up onto the banks,
unmarred by mountains of rubbish tossed aside in a nation
of plenty who dares to slam the gates in the faces
of the faceless; this river is meant to flow on and into Mexico
but there is nothing left but dust to drink, and those in power care
only for the cool shade of living off another's resources,
the precious waters, the stolen lands, and will we ever understand
that no one, not any of us, owns the earth?
"Ghost" ~ James Lavadour
just stunning. And familiar!! I was touched by this.
Oh, Celia, so good to see you! And so glad you enjoyed this post. Many simply would like this subject to simply go away, and justify keeping others ‘out’ through various ‘justifyable’ means. But! This nation was Founded on the principles of, ‘give me your tired, your poor, seek shelter at our door’ kind of thing! How have these tenets vanished at a time they are need the most? All but Native Americans are immigrants, and with ancient land bridges, perhaps we are All simply travelers on Planet Earth. It’s time to help one another into a future promising ‘freedom and justice for all.’ Amen! Thanks again, my friend! Trust all is well with you on the farmy! 🙏🏽🌈☮️💗
All is well on the farm though as an immigrant in the rural Midwest I am starting to feel uneasy. This is such a big country. There feels like plenty of room for working people.
SO much room. This country was built on immigrant labor, for godssake. People need to get over themselves. 🙄😘 hugs, Ms. C.
Yes. Immigrant labor and slave labor. Hard working people.
Exactly.
It’s a sad state of affairs, this demonizing of all the desperate refugees in the world–as if they wanted to leave their homes, as if they had a choice, as if our ancestors hadn’t once made the same journey. This earth belongs to everyone; all of our borders and the buying and selling of “our” land are artificial constructs. (K)
You see clearly, K. Good to hear from you. 🙏💜
Good to see you posting again.
Aww, thanks, Kerfe. I have written lots, I just haven’t posted in a while, no excuse. 🙏♥️
I post very little of what I create. It takes more energy than I have at the moment.
This is a very emotive subject here on these islands! Yes, we are all from somewhere else, my DNA is from somewhere in Europe, and beyond that from the stars! Unfortunately, with the world population now exceeding 8 billion, and rising (just over 200 years ago it was 1 billion) our beautiful Earth cannot cope!
Aloha Ashley, fellow islander and cosmic citizen! It’s great hearing from you. Since I just had a long response to you deleted (along with your comment, it is lost to the ethers, unfortunately, but let me try and reconstruct):
I agree with you, our numbers are far too high to sustain quality of living for humans right now. Though there are certain knowledgeable ones who insist that, minus the plague of greed which keeps corporations in power, we could fairly easily source clean technology that would feed and house every citizen on Planet Earth (think Tesla, and what did ‘they’ do to him?). We needed sustainable solutions decades ago, yet here we have been, simply trying to live our lives, as the common folk have always done. Then there is the Dolores Cannon book about Nostradamus, who said this planet was never ‘designed’ to contain more than 1.5 MILLION of us. Those numbers have long been exceeded of course!
I think both of us are in agreement on what the earth can support, likely because we grew up in very different, less complicated times. Yet we know Earth is a sentient being, and I trust when she’s had enough and has exhausted all her blatant warnings humans continue ignoring, she will simply cycle us down to numbers sufficient only to continue our species. This is not unprecedented in ancient historical times. Humans are a dense group, to be sure, collectively speaking. Perhaps the next dinosaur to become (virtually) extinct.
Meanwhile, we live, work and continue learning all we can while here. Sending blessings from across the waters! ❤️
I struggle with my thoughts at times but some ideas float to the surface, like we are all at different levels and on different ladders! Over time we’ve lost the community of humanity and in the ‘race’ to be better many will be left behind. 💕
Despite struggling with your thoughts, that was beautifully stated, Ashley. There are many paths up the same mountain. 🙏💗
🧗♂️🙏
Your poetic view of freedom, visualised through a series of imagery, strikes deep chords. Whether it is the happy child on the catamaran, freely slithering snake or the bird soaring high up in the sky, across green lands, hilly terrains, blue waters, and desert sands, they all revel in a freedom which seems beyond the ken of humans. At the apex of evolutionary ladder, humans can only sigh because, for them, freedom of the biogeographical world is virtually elusive, literally shoehorned as they are, within institutions, dogmas and prejudices, systems and protocols. The modern US is a European-moulded society, occupying lands conquered from native Americans and incorporating the descendants of millions of sub-Saharan blacks brought to America as slaves. Elsewhere, it is the same saga of migration waves of humans across geographies. Boasting of progress and creature comforts but increasingly straitjacketed within sectarian interests. My best wishes to you, Bela..
Raj, I am just now getting to look at this! We bought an old house back here in our home of Hawaii, and are staying in an expensive rental, so have been madly trying to get things ready at the ‘new’ house so we might occupy it sooner than later and settle into our lives there. A bit yet to go, but why I’ve been somewhat single minded in its pursuit.
I love your words, the way your mind works and how you express yourself. That being said, you are absolutely on point (or I am in complete accord) with your observations. I harbor no illusions about the history of the country I was raised in, and know eminent domain is not solely an “American” idea; there is the colonialism of your own country and elsewhere, the story echoes on and down through time in one form or another. Man’s desire to conquer frontiers (and one another) seems to outweigh his desire for peaceful cohabitation, again and again. And forget nature being sentient, which if course we know it is – apparently it, too is meant to be ‘conquered’ and exploited to the last rhino, the last elm tree, the last cubic centimeter of fresh air and water.
The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert points out the fact that we are precipitating our own demise as a species, and sad as it might be, it would be well deserved, in my opinion – we do seem to be the least inclined to get along with one another and the rest of this beautiful planet. I mourn the changes I have seen in my seven decades of this life, the utter trashing of this sacred ground. Growing up, there was No Plastic. No glyphosates. It’s staggering what impact these two alone have brought about. And humans don’t seem to lose their collective desire for ‘more.’ Then there are decades of advocating for equality for all, only to stand by while yet another radical fundamentalist movement tries to yank the rug out from beneath the feet of those they are sure their Bible marginalizes.
We (Chris and I) realize we are not blameless as consumers of anything, only we do try to make small changes each day to mitigate our footprint. We practice kindness (called Aloha here) and help others where we are able. And being a builder, he continues to encourage customers to reuse and recycle materials employed in the inevitable changes they desire to their home environments. It’s a huge part of why we returned to island living. Trying to be closer to family and old friends on the mainland US when they have their own busy lives was disrespecting our own need for conscious community and a low impact lifestyle. Here we need no heat or air conditioning, shop at local farmers markets weekly and have begun once again to grow what we consume. It’s not nearly enough, but this community is largely in accord with our own lifestyle choices. And so we wait. The planet inhales, exhales another flood, another forest fire, the Powers that Be drum up another damned election and humans can’t wait to get on with it and get their lives ‘back to normal,’ as has always been, I think. Most of us just want to live, but too many of us don’t seem to realize how each choice is a strand woven in the whole fabric. We just don’t seem to get it, do we?
Sending blessings and love your way, Raj – we are living in precipitous times. Wishing you, too, the best.