This is gold, I absolutely loved it! Reading this did what all good poetry does, it briefly took me to another place.
Over the last few years I've researched, planned, and pined to move away from the U.S. then ultimately came to the conclusion that it won't be in the cards for me. Lately, in retrospect, I can see I've been in a period of mourning, the kind you go through when you realize in your bones that something just isn't going to happen. Subsequently, I've come to the realization (sparked by something @lizelle said a while back). We can create our own sanctuaries of peace wherever we are. This is what I'll be striving for over the next couple of years.
Thank you for your contribution to Memoir Monday!
I understand considering moving, and deciding to stay put. The front lines of this war is not a certain place, or places, it's a war in our minds. (I could have put in "you are not your thoughts") It's so very possible to create a sanctuary wherever you are! I wonder if I could do that if physical bombs were falling around me, but right here and now, with the world devolving rapidly into ever more surreal realms, I can do it.
It was my pleasure to contribute. I get an awful lot for having done so.
Like many, I got a strong urge to become an expat in 2016 but, in retrospect, it wasn't for reason I originally thought. I see now if we would have moved when I felt that undeniable urge to we would have avoided quite a few of the negative effects of the pandemic..among other things. By now we would have been fluent in the language, would be citizens, and have put down roots. Now we must dig in and try our best to weather the storm that's coming. Quite a few people feel it, I think.
I'm so glad you're getting some value out of it. The project has exceeded my expectations so far. Already, it's the most personally rewarding of any I've launched in the past seven years.
2016 was a turning point for many of us. I became much more open minded. That changed my whole world. More and more of us are opening. I recently spent an entire day with an old and dear friend of mine, who shocked me with her hate of all things conservative a few years ago, when the Covington boys were demonized. This visit, she admitted that she and her friends were self-righteous, and that her mind had been opened. I thought that would never happen.
For me, the realization came a few years later. I knew there was corruption but I wasn't ready to admit that it ran so deeply, was working so hard to divide the country, conquer it with hate, and control everything to such a degree. Now I refuse to see fellow Americans as "the enemy" and recognize the true enemy to be the forces that drive that division. We so desperately need a new and different option but to make that happen many more people would need to wake up.
yes. This is a primary problem. Because so many of us see half of Americans as the enemy, we are very easy to conquer. This gives more meaning to what the trees told me:
I feel surrounded, and protected, by Ents today.
I agree. It’s a race against time at this point. There’s unfathomable wisdom to be found in nature. Our distance from it is one reason we’re in this predicament.
I really like this guy’s YouTube channel. He’s trying to educate his audience that are similarities are greater than our differences:
Love the old oven! oh my goodness it's fabulous!
"these will keep a man full all day."
Twenty years ago, "you couldn't have asked for a better town."
The things you see if you don't take the main roads!
This is wonderful. I live in a place with a lot of similarities to this one. Thank you so much!