Thank you for sharing my place of sunset, for teaching me the art of randomness.. for meeting me when I did not ask to be met. For listening and for speaking sincerity. For the loose-leaf yerba mate which I am constantly sipping. Thank you for your kindness, and for unravelling your sorrows. For discovering our stories in the labels, and for your pursuit of darkness.
Two days ago I had a conversation with a new friend, and her words have left dents inside my heart..
We were talking about travelling, about exploring the vastness and beauty of America and other countries; she is well-travelled and offered some incredible stories! At some point during our conversation, I asked her if she had ever visited the South.. I invited her to come to Alabama.
"That place scares me", she said, "I can't think of any reason to visit there.. I've heard terrible things."
Those words were a sledge hammer against the strings of my heart. As much as I wanted to disagree with her and vehemently protect the ego of my home.. I just stared back at her with a hot sadness. Because although in many ways she is right... she doesn't know what I know about my home - that there is hope. I feel sometimes it is impossible to accurately describe hope to someone who doesn't have the will yet to believe in it.
I come from a place that many people do not associate with enlightenment or positive vibes.. truthfully my friend's comment is not an isolated thought.. she shares the same view as many people. The South, and especially Alabama are places that have a reputation as backwards-thinking, non-progressive, severely racist, uneducated, and hopeless.. our past has not given us room for a second breath.. we are still choking a bit on the influence of previous generations. But... we will not stay that way. Change is happening. Right. Now.
The only reason a place stays the same is if the people living there remain the same.
There are no spells holding a city or a community, or a state, or a culture to its past.. there is nothing in the land that says, "You must always be this way."
Our future is malleable, it is merely a reflection of our own presence or absence.
I believe that many of us are born into cultures - and it seems as if the present way of thought is all that has ever existed. We often don't question the ability for change, because (in our minds) that culture seems so permanent and so rooted in a place. But that is an illusion!
The only thing required for changing a place, is loving it - bringing affection to it, and not abandoning it to its past.
I have a vision for my home. For Montevallo, for Alabama, for the South, for the New South. I believe in the transformation of our culture from the inside out; not losing our traditions, or our 'Southern-ness'.. but becoming a place that generates goodness and no longer apathy. I am discovering friends with the same vision, who share the same hostility towards repression.. friends who are investing their abilities and intention into our home. That gives me so much raging joy!
I think that before we can fully love anyone or any other place in the world.. we must first begin to love the place we are from. The more desperate it is.. the more love you must create for it.
My home.. Alabama.
I love you for what you will become.
"..Show me how you follow your deepest desires, spiraling down into the ache within the ache, and I will show you how I reach inward and open outward to feel the kiss of the Mystery, sweet lips on my own, every day. Don’t tell me you want to hold the whole world in your heart. Show me how you turn away from making another wrong without abandoning yourself when you are hurt and afraid of being unloved. Tell me a story of who you are, and see who I am in the stories I live. And together we will remember that each of us always has a choice. Don’t tell me how wonderful things will be . . . some day. Show me you can risk being completely at peace, truly okay with the way things are right now in this moment, and again in the next and the next and the next. . ."
_ traveller
there is never a need to fear the abandonment of love.
Such an insecurity that plays tricks with our minds sometimes.. the thought, that if we wander too far or let a beautiful relationship out of our presence, it means we are abandoning our love for a person,.. or that we are losing theirs'. love never abandons itself.
_ traveller
know that you when you release love.. it is like releasing a faithful animal friend, who longs to return to you and play at your side. when we release a person from our love.. we are not withdrawing from them.. we are offering them our affection without boundaries.
We are saying, "You are free. here is my adoration, please take it with you wherever you go. we will see each other again soon."
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