20180615_164450

so i have this Time.   Alone,  to do with what i Will.  

the first since December.

I am haunted by an image.   Slate,  first,  an article by Dahlia Lithwick  that Mo linked for Dee.  But since,  different places.

the midsection and legs of a young woman,  being searched,  in headlights.  It's night.  You can't see her arms but know they are on the vehicle…up.    At her knee is a child,  girl child,  maybe 2 years?  Pink jacket,  pink shoes.  The child is crying.  I can assume that the child is crying because she wants her mother to pick her up.  The mother doesn't.  The mother can't.  The child will never understand why the mother didn't pick her up.

I  took a nap today.  The good kind.  20 minutes,  mid day.  The kind of nap that allows me to wake….Cleared….wide eyed,  knowing nothing and slowly focusing and realizing where i am.  what i am.   I worked at the hole i am digging for daughter's Hydrangea plant that her son,  my grandson,  gave her for mother's day.  it's late to plant it,  but…better late than never

Earlier in the morning,  i cleared Campsite B.  Picked everything up.  Put things in their two respective tubs,  bagged the junk that they seem to be attached to…the energy drink containers,  chip bags.   It's ready for early work tomorrow.

I hauled down two bucket loads of Goat manure and placed it in the Wall Garden,  gently,  around the plants that grow there.  Gave water.

I walked up and over the top of this Hill and cut some few twigs of Manzanita to add to the jar outside the door.   Bundled some scraps and submerged them.

late in the day,  washed my hair with the Outside hand held shower thing,  at the back of this travel trailer,  the water there heated by the Sun.   it's for camping convenience.  

Way back in the morning,  during tea,  I listened to the latest On Being pod cast.  I wasn't going to.  I felt too raw and didn't want anything gentle and civilized and kind.  But i went there and Frank Wilczek was being interviewed..a theoretical physicist,  mathematition and Nobel laureate.  Who has written a book called A Beautiful Question:  Finding Nature's Deep Design.   It was a beauty Full interview and though i don't imagine i will understand much about the physics,  or the references to mathematics,   what i heard him say,  I KNEW.  I knew to be How It Is.  I knew it to be How It Is since i was a child…watching dust motes,  watching the flow of the creek.   I ordered it from Amazon.  along with some whole cardomon seed,  taking me over budget for this month,  but WTF.

late in the afternoon i stood,  thinking i hadn't accomplished anything today.  I looked at the Refuge Cloth on the wall.  I thought about how i imagine mySelf to be a cloth maker.  So i went back into that bedroom here and began pulling out scraps of cloth from baskets.  What "wanted" my attention?   All the while,  i'm seeing that young woman,  the girlchild.  Thinking,

what good is this thing of cloth making?   

I have no answer.

Alyssia and Emrie missed their plane on their way to Texas to see Emrie's father.   Their luggage went on but all A had was a backpack.  They had to sleep in the airport.  It is conceivable,  given the present tenor,  that passengers might be….uhhh,

detained.

Alyssia is brown.  My daughter is me…light,  blue eyed caucasion.  Alyssia's father was black.  She is brown.  Her married name,  to her son's father who is Puerto Rican,  is spanish.   Emrie is brown.  Her father's name is spanish,  El Salvadoran.  Both Alyssia and Emrie's father are veterans of the United States Navy.  it's where they met.   8 years ago.  But it is conceivable that she might be detained.

detained.  

Emrie,  taken from her.  Like the child taken today,  while breastfeeding.  Emrie breast feeds.  Taken.  For how long?  How long would it take to figure it out?  What would that mean to Emrie?  Why was her mother not there?  Why was her mother not picking her up?

This is Happening.  Like in Germany.  When people were taken to the showers.  The children HERE IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA are said to be taken to be "cleaned up".  They don't return.   WHAT IS HAPPENING?  We are heading head long down a slippery slope.  No amount of protest will change it.  So…..WHAT can we do?  Maybe nothing  .  or?

 

 

 

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17 responses to “”

  1. jaime Avatar
    jaime

    My prayers are with you. I’m sure Allysia has her documentation with her but that doesn’t stop the anxiety and fear that occurs because of these images. Because of this wordless horrors.
    Tayon, my nephew, is white and black. He has such a hard time with the violence and hatred of people of color.( I told him you are counting on him and he said OK.)I think what I can do is not let the emotions overtake. It is fear and hatred that is fueling these atrocities. To remain thinking straight I have to remain sane. And respond when I can, what I can. We all have skin in this, one way or another. Express ourselves. Explain ourselves. Do what we can when we can. I don’t know…

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  2. Mo Crow Avatar

    (((Grace))) the power of the pen
    namaste

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  3. Michelle Slater Avatar

    I lose heart and courage and then it rises up…I bake and pass cakes to folks in my environs, I make art, I sit in meditation with a wonderful group of healers, I write with another wonderful group, I talk to everyone about everything and find that most I talk to are also horrified and stressed. You are not alone though in your present circumstance you might think so. Do Maitre, make cloth, keep planting, keep hope alive, bake and cook and keep yourself kindly. I love you.

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  4. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    I think back to the Obama years when “Si Se Puede” (Yes We Can) seemed the way forward. Now the daily despair of how we got to here from there overwhelms and the only thing I hold onto is that Si Se Puede now means get the hell out and VOTE in every primary, in the National election. This horror of tearing children from their families is a soul destroying atrocity. My immigrant parents would weep to see what has become of their America.
    A while back Dee wrote a post on her blog called Taking Stock;
    https://deemallon.wordpress.com/2018/05/21/taking-stock/
    I commented because that particular day I could not seem to rise above the despair and all I wanted to do was go to Youtube and listen to an old song by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, “Wake UP Everybody”, a song that became an Obama anthem.
    So I think that we just have to keep talking about this, writing about this, praying that we change it at the polls because I don’t know what else to do.

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  5. joanne Avatar
    joanne

    I have understood NOTHING since Election Night in November of 2016.
    One of the reasons I stopped working was my co-workers saw nothing WRONG with what is happening. As they say–“We LOVE it!!” I had to go……..I am only second generation American. When do they come for me???

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  6. julie Avatar

    I think part of the answer to “what can we do” is in your last post: tell.

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  7. grace Forrest Avatar

    so…easier when looking OUT. you ARE doing. You are
    WITH Tayon, one of the young ones, upon whom our Hope
    holds strong. You are WITH him, standing WITH him.
    and yes…your words are true. It is part of the plan they have, to keep people confused, to keep emotion high, to weaken us this way.
    remain thinking straight.

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  8. grace Forrest Avatar

    what gently words…keep yourself kindly….i love you back

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  9. grace Forrest Avatar

    yes. your parents would weep. Your Father.

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  10. grace Forrest Avatar

    Denise…yes…thank you so much for this link….it is
    critical….THANK YOU

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  11. grace Forrest Avatar

    yes…to now be surrounded by It….i too would have had to
    leave.
    we ALL are children of Immigrants. Only the First People, not and look at That.
    this thing of America, this thing of Democracy, I understand it to be a complex evolving Thing. but
    how it can morph so quickly, with no brakes….something
    we need to Face.

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  12. grace Forrest Avatar

    and also go back into HISTORY….how did others stay strong in the face of unimaginable cruelty, unimaginable horror.
    and can we find that Pulse today?

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  13. Vicky Davis Avatar

    I hope Alyssia plans to drive back home? This treatment just hurts…in so many ways.

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  14. grace Forrest Avatar

    no…she’ll fly. We know that Fear is the opponent.

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  15. Deb Avatar

    A small thing, all others considered, but I’m so happy to see the Janet chairs made the pilgrimage.

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