35. Becoming human again.
"All that you touch, you Change. All that you Change, Changes you." -Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower
Yesterday, our arms were full of olive branches and roses.
Yesterday, the sky was full of birds.
Yesterday, I met a woman named Safiya, who was born in Palestine in 1946. She told me that the first time she witnessed an act of terror against her people she was two years old. She told me: tyranny never lasts. She said, my loved ones are not dead, they are in a better place. We hugged and cried and she said I will never forget you. We sat together on the columned steps, resting. She shared her sunflower seeds with me.
Yesterday, people laid out rugs on the streets of our nation’s capital—on sidewalks, in parks, under monuments—and prayed together, as hundreds of thousands more people walked together, as Jews and Muslims and Christians and atheists and pagans and punks and weirdos and moms and dads with strollers and kids on their shoulders marched together, sang together, cried together, mobilizing our hearts and lungs and feet and minds together, to say, together: never again for anyone. Not in our names.
Yesterday, on the bus ride home, I dozed while listening to a socialist plumber (pronouns: she/her) discuss political theory with an anarchist teamster (pronouns: they/them), while people shared their bags of oranges, their boxes of granola bars, their bottles of water, laughed and sang, where the bus driver, Tommy, told us all we were a family, told us he supported us, he understood.
Yesterday, on the bus ride home, Ahmed invited us to his home in Palestine for maklouba and chnafa (or knafeh, depending on if you are madani or falahi), to eat with his family, once Palestine is free, Inshallah.
Yesterday, our arms were full of olive branches and roses.
Yesterday, the sky was full of birds.
Yesterday we remembered who we are.
Yesterday we let this change us.
Yesterday we became human again.
Please join us, your fellow humans, in the movement to stop the genocide in Gaza and the occupation of Palestine. Learn more and get involved through these organizations:
Home + The World is a weekly newsletter by Jodi Rhoden featuring personal essay, recipes, links and recommendations exploring the ways we become exiled: through trauma, addiction, oppression, grief, loss, and family estrangement; and the ways we create belonging: through food and cooking, through community care and recovery and harm reduction, through therapy and witchcraft and making art and telling stories and taking pictures and houseplants and unconditional love and nervous system co-regulation and cake. All content is free; the paid subscriber option is a tip jar. Thank you for being here and thank you for being you.
⚔️❤️ Jodi
Absolutely beautiful… I needed this, we all need this perception and experience of real humanity