Nightprowlkitty put up an essay the other day A Personal View — Discontent that perfectly captured a long-standing inner distress I have about where I find myself in this world-wide maze of destruction, circa 2008. Time has sped up, the pace of information has sped up and… “I’m getting older, too.” @;-)

As NPK so well described in her essay, I don’t want to react to the news of these events. I want to respond, I want to work from where I am with what tools are available now. I don’t have a million dollars, I don’t have 14 or even one university degree. What I do have is a mind that works- most days- and a telephone and internet connection.

First up, I want find a connection between the disasters and a healing force. It doesn’t have to be the connection, it just has to be a connection. And the more connections, the better.  Once the connections are established, stories are probably next. A few years ago I wrote for a small county newspaper. There’s nothing like a personal story to bring home an outrage, and if the story is coupled with a way for nearly anyone to participate in a solution, well, that’s is a way to respond, not simply react. That’s where my telephone connection comes in handy. And post a story or two? That’s where the internet connection comes into play.

So, bottom line, for me: for every outrage, I want to find a place that is working to ease the disaster to focus my attention and limited funds.  A way to keep balance… if I’m going to bounce from these outrages, I want to bounce against a healing force.

Don’t know if that makes sense, I’m still sorting it out.  🙂 But I do know that “Many hands make light work.” I can make a dent, even it it’s only *ripple.

*Edger’s the go-to-guy on “Ripples.”  

“25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50…

Ready or not, here I come!”

Remember the game?  Hide ‘n Seek?  Well, that’s how we began the game in “the Circle,” the name for our neighborhood.  We ended the game with the chant, “Ally ally outs in free.”

There have been, and will continue to be, essays written here and elsewhere about the devastation on America’s Gulf Coast. Eloquent, heart-felt songs and words written by and about American people whose lives will never been the same after Katrina hit and the levees failed.  Lives marked today by neglect; plain and simple neglect. Some say this neglect isn’t benign- but designed.  I’m not going to delve into that subject today; I just see what I see and it isn’t good.

What I see on the Gulf Coast is just one example of the neglect that so many Americans experience here in “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” Our veterans, our homeless, our children– far too many Americans suffer from neglect. Sadly, there are far too few of us with the time, energy, money and inclination to put them back together.  I’m one of those strapped Americans.

But, I’ve got an extra $5. In fact, I’ve got extra $10.  And today, I know where to send it.  NENA (The Lower Ninth Ward Neighborhood Empowerment Network Association). If you have an extra $5, $10, $15, $20… maybe you could send it on as well.  It might buy someone a meal.  It might buy them nails to repair what’s left of their home.  It might send them hope.

And then maybe we can whisper, “Ally ally outs in free.”

And imagine the day we can yell it as loud as we did when we were kids.

Thanks.

NENA’s priority needs are:

1.) Building Materials: nails to studs to wire.

2.) Money

3.) Gift Cards: Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot, Win Dixie Food Stores, Dollar General, Family Dollar  

Send to:

NENA

PO Box 3920

New Orleans, Louisiana 70177

504-373-6483  

On NightProwlKitty‘s diary, “I’m not waiting on the government to give me nothing”

https://www.docudharma.com/show…

tahoebasha3 posted a comment about a group named NENA (The Lower Ninth Ward Neighborhood Empowerment Network Association) that is part of the effort to rebuild the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans. The organization is under the auspices of Lower 9th Ward residents. Tahoebasha3 posted NENA’s telephone number.

I called and the woman who answered the phone later told me she was President of Lower Ninth Ward Homeowner’s Association. She was handling the phones while everyone else went to lunch. I’m still a little bit overwhelmed by our conversation, so this essay will be brief. I was told that the majority of the people NENA helped were senior citizens. We exchanged emails and plan to stay in touch. I thank everyone who blogs on this issue, it’s because of you that I made this simple phone call.

NENA’s priority needs are:

1.) Building Materials: nails to studs to wire.

2.) Money

3.) Gift Cards from: Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot, Win Dixie Food Stores, Dollar General, Family Dollar  

Send to:

NENA

PO Box 3920

New Orleans, Louisiana 70177

“If it wasn’t for the people who call us, we wouldn’t be as advanced as we are.

It’s the thought, you know?”

~~Linda Jackson

There are so many excellent essays here at Docudharma:

davidseth’s: Remembering Dr. King’s True Legacy

NLinStPaul’s:  A Better Way

OPOL’s:  A Gentle Reminder

Jimstaro’s: Peace History – This Past Week

are a few I read this morning.  Please check out the list on the sidebar, this weekend’s been a all-header for stories.  @;-)

I am taken with the ideas, experience and hard truths that are offered here as a matter of routine.  There aren’t often essays calling for someone else to provide “leadership;” there are however many essays about “calls” that individuals have answered and are in the process of answering. Just as in the Hero’s Journey stories of myth, only right now- real people- in real time.

I am struck with how much work is being accomplished as much as I am struck by the enormous amount of work there is yet to even begin.

So, in the spirit of encouragement, I offer a poem that I wrote (and was fortunate to see published) in 2001.  It is the story of the bird of rebirth, the Phoenix, who rises from its own ashes on the fabled Ben-Ben stone only once every 500 years.  In most myths, the bird is solitary, he/she has no leader, has no followers, has no companions.  I like to think that we all are our own Phoenix, but while our journeys are often conducted alone, we now have the opportunity to share the inspiration from our own experiences of ‘rising out of the ashes’ with other Phoenixes from not only around the country, but from around the world.  I like to think that the millions of us on our own journeys see each other, flap our wings, and know that individually together, we are changing our worlds.

In honor of your own Phoenix:

so called, as once a blue moon or so, a poem might appear. @;-)

Another version of this was written in March, 2003 for the grassroots “Poets Against the War” website,

along with thousands of other poems, from thousands of other poets. The site is still active.

Old Woman and The Child

He said,

“It is dark!

Did the comet die?”

She answered,

“Yes, it is dark,

the comet is gone,

dark prayers are planted in the land.

But look,

here, in the round

we still have our fire.  

I tell you now,

before they come-

drink blood from our fingers

eat bowls of our dead-

we’ll show them the river’s source in the stars,

found in each of their palms.

And one-by-one

they will sit down, and remember.”