"For you know I must be faithful Sojourner everywhere..." Sojourner Truth, October 1865
The end of the New Orleans sojourn approaches. The end of the first New Orleans sojourn. I will welcome the chance to return to New Orleans, to become more intimately acquainted with NOLA--she has been so very good to me. Her beauty is alluring, seductive... I say "goodbye, for now," knowing that I leave a piece of my heart here and will always carry with me a piece of this vibrant, stricken, mysterious place.
Later this week I will travel to Gulfport to make the acquaintance of the people and places and projects that will figure in the upcoming stage of my life's unfolding. I move forward, as always--knowing nothing, diffuse and concurrent strains of grief and eagerness flowing and surging through me.
Eager to see what lies ahead, grief for departure from the rhythms and scents of New Orleans that I have come to love. Eager for the possibility of learning more about the realities of the African-in-America post-Katrina, grief for inquiries I did not pursue while in NO. Eager to lend my services and skills and passion to a righteous, relevant and crucial work; grief for my unrealized artistic intentions in a city where creativity flourishes.
As always, this upcoming move presents an opportunity to "start again." To "correct" whatever "mistakes" I made in New Orleans or other places of sojourn over the past two years. But it takes only a few seconds of trying to make a list of my "mistakes" before I am cross-eyed and dizzy and exhausted--too many to count, let alone devise corrective strategies! I can only breathe deeply, still my heart and mind, give thanks for Divine guidance and intervention, ask for continued nurture and support and protection...
To remain faithful, curious, willing, awake.
Later this week I will travel to Gulfport to make the acquaintance of the people and places and projects that will figure in the upcoming stage of my life's unfolding. I move forward, as always--knowing nothing, diffuse and concurrent strains of grief and eagerness flowing and surging through me.
Eager to see what lies ahead, grief for departure from the rhythms and scents of New Orleans that I have come to love. Eager for the possibility of learning more about the realities of the African-in-America post-Katrina, grief for inquiries I did not pursue while in NO. Eager to lend my services and skills and passion to a righteous, relevant and crucial work; grief for my unrealized artistic intentions in a city where creativity flourishes.
As always, this upcoming move presents an opportunity to "start again." To "correct" whatever "mistakes" I made in New Orleans or other places of sojourn over the past two years. But it takes only a few seconds of trying to make a list of my "mistakes" before I am cross-eyed and dizzy and exhausted--too many to count, let alone devise corrective strategies! I can only breathe deeply, still my heart and mind, give thanks for Divine guidance and intervention, ask for continued nurture and support and protection...
To remain faithful, curious, willing, awake.
