I Am My Own Country Now

"patriotic only for my own quiet tenderness,

a citizen of loss and finding again a reason to hold on."

Finding the quiet tenderness...I know is here

beneath the upheaval and incredulous disbelief.

"I am the only homeland I know.

No one can govern my life."

When we find this homeland,

let us remember we share it with each other.

Our homelands intersect, co-mingle, 

entangle with others.

"I am my own country now. An individual revolution."

This is a place to start...

from here ...

I'm going to share words from Valarie Kaur 

inspired by MLK's Strength To Love, on inauguration day.

Let us vow to protect our hearts. Let us protect our strength to love — 

to refuse to go numb to suffering, to alchemize pain into energy and action, 

to fight for our humanity. One act of love at time. Let us pull each other out of rubble.

 Let us listen when it’s hard. Let us refuse to hate. Let us practice the world we want in the space between us — with every choice, every word, every encounter, every breath. 

Let us make the meal, pour the tea, lay the brick, plant the tree. 

Let us sleep and dream. Let us dream of the world we are laboring for

 and trust in our role in the labor

Today I vow to stay in the long labor with you. Even with ash in my mouth, 

I vow to breathe and push with you — so that seven generations from now, 

they will remember how we labored through the dark with a love so bright, 

it birthed a world of sweetness and connection, from the soil to the stars.

Imagine thousands of us making our vows together. 

It is our own People’s Inauguration. 

Today we inaugurate our dignity and courage, our belonging and joy. 

Today we inaugurate love. Love will make us brave. Valarie Kuhr

I believe this is how

"we populate ourselves with those who can hold us,

and who we can hold, landlocked together..."

"We will stay close to our land, to the trees,

to our small circles of love...close to the poets,

hold [their] words as Light."

High praise and appreciation for the poets

who accompany us through the fertile darkness.

Namaste'

Here is the entire poem: I Am My Own Country Now