The We in the I

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I heard a knock on my heart's door, ‘I asked who is it?’ It is we, they replied.

Who is "we," I asked. It is we that resides in you.

I stepped outside and saw no one. I walked on a path and there I saw a block of tents for Veterans, they sat alone, or together, dismantled, out of place. Their eyes did not look at mine, their heads were down, or looking into space.

My heart throbbed, I heard it beat faster than before. I turned a corner and saw a colony of cats and their babies on the street they looked skinny and scared. Who was feeding them, would they be ok? Would they survive the streets?

My heart felt deep concern, as I felt an ache inside. What was happening to the other ones, were they paying even a higher price?

The path narrowed and turned. I walked my steps now slower. I saw a bunch of boxes, and carts, blankets on the ground. I saw young women and men, children, and elderly, and dogs sleeping on the cold floor. "Hungry" was written on the boxes, "need work", or "please help, I need your help to survive."

I felt the tears fill my eyes, I could see their faces were similar to mine. My heart closed in, I could not breathe. They were me, we were the same as the "we" in the I.

I sat down on a big rock. Tears flowed down my cheeks. What has happened to us?

This is not our destiny. We who move the moon and stars, we who travel through the skies, is this whom we have come to be? Where, where is the humanity?

I got up mustering all my strength and walked a bit more down the rocky path.

I saw an elderly person crossing. His hands were shaking, and there to my heart's delight a young man helped him cross the path, the two walked then, side by side.

My heart lifted slightly...there was hope. My tears flowed, from not a pain this time, but a joy.

I walked back home down the curvaceous path. I sat on my carpet, my head in my hand. I was not just an I. I was the we. I am the homeless, the veteran, the cat on the street. I am the aged, the forgotten, the silenced those in pain. I am not just the I, I carry the we.

So in the midst of this chaos and the craziness I see, I know there is a tribe, the tribe that is the "we". And we believe that we can overcome all these travesties. What has been done to humanity, is not acceptable to me.

I get up with my pen in hand, from here I begin. To bring a shift of consciousness,

to try to heal the I through the we.