Fo[u]r people digging deep

Four people I tend to think about and why when it’s time to dig deep or regroup with sadness or overwhelm before moving forward again:

1. Mum – “you always have three choices you can make, even to the moment before death.”

And her refugee immigration story for getting to the U.S. reminds me that we made it this far, she went through a lot to get here, most of the nonsense we face isn’t quite like witnessing tanks roll into your city and having to escape with part of your family from political persecution by boat.

2. Jake Turbett – when I was in middle school and sometimes even high school I knew he’d be willing to make space at a lunch table for me to sit down even though I didn’t know much about him otherwise. We’d probably have very different views, and straight out of high school he joined the U.S. Marine Corps genuinely believing in defense of the country before getting killed in action a few years later while in Kandahar.

3. Marie Colvin – war correspondent focused on telling the story of everyday people impacted by war and was credited with preventing the massacre of 1000 Indonesians during a civil war by refusing to leave when all media agencies departed in anticipation of a military operation; she was later killed while reporting on the Assad regime’s decimation of Homs in Syria. She exemplified the fact that some people are willing to risk death for the sake of simply telling the truth about people’s suffering.

4. Charity Hicks – Detroit advocate whose memory is often expressed with the phrase to “wage love.”

While I might have crossed paths with her, I certainly didn’t share a conversation in depth but that expression tells me that it’s equally important and always possible to show up with a tender heart while doing the work that's needed.

Create, stand up, speak out, live with the courage to care even when it's hard to find and feel. All of it matters even if it's to one person.


Thanks to Jewel Kawataki for inspiring this reflection.

An Origami frog folded for a friend in Washington D.C.-- Omakaki, Ojibwemowen for frog with roots that can also mean "growth in the dark"; Kaeru in Japanese which can also, if my shallow gleaning from a beer company has any bearing, mean a return to prosperity.