Of Two Minds

You've just finished a small Mother-in-Law in your backyard/a sunny basement apartment/a tiny house in your ample side yard . You built it because you had the time and the skills and you wanted help paying for health care/to pay real rent to the Duwamish/a white person to pay you reparations .  You live off the 5 so I can visit my baby nibling without transferring busses/the light rail so I can visit my family in Tacoma/somewhere in sight of a lake so I have people visit me there .  We see each other often/infrequently/sometimes and when we do its usually because I'm weeding your garden/offering you raw desserts/bringing my bike in when you're heading out .  I am typically early to bed except in the Summer. I keep the yard tidy and my music playing is getting better all the time. I'm more than happy to check on your pets if you're on vacation or home late.  You let me paint the walls and plant my own plots. You are generous with your resources and take responsibili

Rush Limbaugh is a relative of mine. A very, very distant relative. I have never spoken to him and I am certain as I can be that he didn't know I exist. I only know we are related because my great uncle is a historian of "pioneer" history which includes our family. Anyway, I remember learning that he was my grandpa's third cousin (or something like that) as a kid and -- knowing only that he was some measure of "successful" -- being sincerely appalled that he wasn't doing anything to help me and my cousins pay for college. ba dum ba. For reasons I don't entirely understand, I feel compelled to claim him. I have no interest in denying or downplaying the very real harm he willfully ignited or his commitment to moral decrepitude. But I very genuinely hope he finds peace. May you rest May your heart break open May your fear become ridiculous to you May the hatred you gripped tightly now slip through your fingers May your deceptions become heavy to those w

Sheryl opened her eyes to another bonus morning. She could hear the rain running off the sides of the roof. It must be really pouring! No matter — it’s not like she need to travel to her meeting.   Over the past several months, she had become accustomed to the short commute from her “cozy” bedroom, past the kitchen to pick up some coffee and coconut yogurt, to her desk that she had moved into the window nook as soon as her job went virtual. She’d been in the same apartment since 2007 but she still surprised herself when, clutching her coffee, she looked out to the busy street below. Her friends in Seattle used to joke that she must be a New Yorker with all the black in her wardrobe. Was it ironic that it was in New York that she learned to play more freely with color? In this new life, she never married.. you know, after the twice in her first life. It was all the same to her. Her child, Al, had suggested that maybe she was asexual? or grey romantic? Maybe. Anyway, Severus, she ofte

I give thanks to everything  that  took this breath before me.  I seek remembrance that we are one.  Please send me the willingness to let go of my fears  that  I may wrap myself in Love.  May each step be guided by Collective Liberation.  Save me from selfishness and suspicion.  May I honor the Universe within and without. --------- day 22  #pandowrimo  @adriennemareebrown  Post pandemic, how are we envisioning and creating collective/communal living? -  @lettuce.bee.free  

I’ve met you before.  You scared me. I learned not to trust you. And now you come to me hand open as though I would take it You come to me  Fully Aware   — you seem to suggest — of the Hell you dragged me through And you say  we need each other. That my salvation  comes at the cost of Forgiveness. I am only angry  because  I know you’re right. I know you’re right  because  I’ve been telling you to Fuck Off  for years  and I’m exactly as scared as I was. So ok. I’ll try it your way and see  what happens  when we join hands.  -------------- Day 23  #pandowrimo   @adriennemareebrown  So much broke when the sickness came. So much unraveled. What was mended in that time? Socks? Relations? What was woven anew?  @yourfriendkat