Our Future:
Chapter 12: Our Reunion
Better & Stronger & One--Two--More
Halfway away,
filled with regret,
an inch from death.
The compass needle
spun and spun and spun.
erratically, frantically, chaotically,
until it cracked the glass and sprung.
Just then, time resumed,
reviving the dominion dogs;
snarling, snapping, spitting;
the feared end had begun.
The bitter tears shed over graves are
for words left unsaid and deeds left undone
–Harriet Beecher Stowe. 1811-1896
In the midst of death, life persists.
In the midst of untruth, truth persists.
In the midst of darkness, light persists.
–Mahatma Gandhi. 1869-1948. (A)
The dog, to gain some private ends,
went mad, and bit the man.
–Oliver Goldsmith. 1728-1774
When someone–two–emerged
from the other side of the woods,
the canines crept backward,
back into the brush.
There,
what I had lost
sixteen years ago,
simply walked up to me,
in tattered banana slippers
and a worn-out burlap sack
and with a new friend, no less.
They helped me to my feet, slowly.
We limped and hobbled up the hillside,
over its peak,
then tumbled into a safe, lush valley
on the other side, a whole world away,
into the vibrant spring super bloom, below
The only thing sweeter than union is reunion.
–Kathleen McGowna. Born 1963.
Rejoice with your family in the
beautiful land of life.
Albert Einstein. 1879-1955.
May the roots of your family tree grow
deep and strong.
–Irish Blessing.
In family life, love is the oil that eases friction,
the cement that binds closer together, and,
the music that brings harmony.
–Friedrich Nietzche. 1844-1900.
Generations pass life leaves fall from our
family tree. Each season new life blossoms
and grows benefiting from the strength and
experience of those who went before.
–Heidi Swapp.
Tukayo?
Wonderful.
Welcome to our new,
already expanding family.
We will have endless fun,
all fitting closely together.
Their joy was so obvious.
With each tale they bashfully told,
their affection for one another unfolded
Suddenly, they grew self-aware.
We will never leave you alone–never again.
Not if we nurture our, Wee.
Alone? Never alone,
Never was, never will be.
Never, not with you returned to me.
We can’t just leave you alone.
We need you; we need your help.
Slanu, you left in me one small cell of you
and I survived because of it.
We will be together, in one.
Tukayo took mine and Slanu’s hands.
Let us gift you more.
Together, none of us are alone.
United, none of us will be alone.
Together, we extend our We.
Within Slanu and Tukayo, their glow grew
Until it radiated beyond them and enveloped me.
Our heads pivoted up and peered toward the sky.
I can feel my new young spirit inside me;
We hold her belly.
Enriched, nourished and replenished.
The glow grows intense; I feel warmth; I feel heat.
Nourishing. Replenishing. Resplendent.
For a moment we rise, off the ground, above the land.
Slanu says to me,
You look a whole lot younger
than you did a minute ago.
We settle back down, anchored to the ground
Our smiles break out into laughter.
Like recharging your dead battery.
Our Creator has no limit.
Our Infinity has no limit.
Our love has no limit.
Before my eyes, my spirit took form.
Tukayo, too.
Their colors returned
And they suddenly began to fill-out.
They grew and sprouted fingers and toes
Snap, snap. snap.
Ten, twenty, forty pops.
Like tiny fireworks,
As they came into their own new forms,
plus Tukayo’s new small bump.
You have come into your own.
Here, pride exceeds past loss.
We laughed, cried, hugged
for a really long time;
Sadness turned to joy.
In pregnancy, there are two bodies,
one inside the other.
Two people live under one skin.
When so much of life is dedicated to
maintaining our integrity as distinct beings,
this body tandem is an uncanny fact.
–Joan Raphael-Leff. Born 1941.
If I had my life to live over again,
instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy,
I’d have cherished every moment and realized
that the wonderment growing inside me was the
only chance in life to assist God in a miracle.
–Erma Bombeck. 1927-1996.
To be pregnant is to be vitally alive,
thoroughly woman,
and distressingly inhabited.
–Anne Christian Buchanan.
So much awaits you.
So much for you to do.
So much for you to see.
Improving our world.
Here, there, everywhere.
I now have three to fill the place of one.
Thrice the spirit than in the past.
Who could ask for anything more?
Your courage to embrace love honors us
and signs your covenant with our Creator.
There is no right or wrong way to be pregnant,
to become a mother, to make a family.
There is only one way–your way,
which will inevitably be filled with tears, mistakes, doubt,
but also joy, relief, triumph, and love.
–Angela Garbes.
The point in history at which we stand is full of
promise and danger. The world will either move
forward toward unity and widely shared prosperity
–or it will move apart.
–Franklin D. Roosevelt. 1882-1945.
The purpose of life is not to be happy,
It is to be useful, honorable, compassionate
and to make a difference.
–Ralph Waldo Emmerson, 1838. 1803-1882.
Upon our reunion,
In our new-found forms,
my long-lost Slanu back,
enhanced by you, Tukayo.
Double count,
triple pride
in our Wee.
We celebrated, drank and gulped
from Tukayo’s flask,
filled with life’s nectar.
Oh, how I love tasting!
I did not know how much I missed it!
My hope returned
and intention changed,
as did this tale’s forecast.
I asked, now, show us your creations.
Not longer after, we began to make sense of it all.
We labored to compare and decipher our stories.
We realized the shadows of sounds and images
that we saw and heard while divided
were our respective perceptions
of one another in splintered,
out-of-phase time,
and place.
To live without hope is to cease to live.
–Aristotle. 384-322 BC.
If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton,
you may as well make it dance.
–George Benard Shaw. 1856-1950.
In every conceivable manner, the family
is the link to our past, bridge to our future.
–Alex Haley. 1921-1992.
We need to add to the three R’s,
Reading, Riting, ‘Rithmatic,
a fourth–Responsibility.
–Herbert Hoover, 31st U.S. President, 1929-33.
We realize our reunion is rare.
Our survival compels us
to share our journeys
so you, too,
can know
it is true.
As I said at the beginning,
I know this is not done. It may be unfinished
but we must share now.
You have seen
Slanu and Tukayo’s imported contributions.
The cairns mark energenic fields:
good-will, compassion,
personal and social strength and duty:
all that yields insight and access to democracy.
What can you do to promote world peace?
Go home and love your family.
–Mother Teresa. 1910-1997.
What greater thing is there for human souls
than to feel that they are joined for life–
to be with each other in silent unspeakable
memmories.
–George Elliot. 1819-1880.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all
men are created equal, that they are endowed by
their Creator with certain inalienable rights,
among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness, that to secure these rights governments
are instituted among men.
–Thomas Jefferson. 1743-826.
We will bring ourselves together;
we will reunite, plus one
–Two–
and share it with you,
here, online.
In return, we ask
Something from you:
For all of us to live in Unity
in the human biome,
the fertile, safe realm
in which variety and differences
can coexist
in Peace,
the Apex of our Politics,
YOU must extend this map;
depict Y~our journey that brought
all of us–together–all of us–in our
continuing journey toward justice tour.
Peace is not the absence of conflict,
it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.
–Ronald Regan. 40th U.S. President. 1911-1981.
Our strength lies in spiritual concepts.
It lies in public sensitivities to evil.
Our greatest danger is not from invading armies.
Our dangers are that we may commit suicide from within
by compliance with evil, or, by public tolerance of
scandalous behavior.
–Herbert Hoover, 31st U.S. President, 1929-33.
I believe in the power of unity
and the strength of the people.
Laughter has the ability to unite people,
and that is something we desperately need.
I am not a politician, I am a servant of the people.
I stand for equality and equal opportunity of all.
I need ammunition, not a ride.
–Volodymyr Zelensky. Born 1978.
Please accept our invitation to add to
and expand this open story,
share your images, inspirations, thoughts,
authentically, creatively, respectfully.
Just make it, make it real and make us feel!
We promise you, you will lift us all up,
extend and lead us across that bridge
to our achievable peace,
Now, go splunk.
The Red Nation shall rise again and it shall be a blessing for a sick world;
a world filled with broken promises, selfishness, and separations;
a world longing for the light again.
I see a time of Seven Generations when all the colors of mankind will gather under the Sacred Tree of Life and the whole earth will become one circle again.
In that day, there will be those among the Lakota who will carrry knowledge and understanding of unity among all living things
and the young white ones will come to those of my people and ask for this wisdom.
I salute the light within your eyes where the whole Universe dwells.
For when you are at that center within you and I am that place within me, we shall be one.
–Crazy Horse, Oglala Lakota Sioux (KIA)
