Summons — Every Life Is Precious

Meg and I have known each other for over 30 years. She hired me to be her assistant in the early 1990s — that’s how we met. I answered phones. Took messages. Filed stuff. And the other things that we used to do before email, laptops, and Google.

Meg and I have had many chapters together over those 30 years. Work. Projects. Witnessed relationships both found and let go. We’ve dreamed worlds of well-being together. These days, it’s more likely a visit over a cup of tea. In person, on her deck, watching birds flutter and hover near bird feeders. Sometimes at Dana’s and my home, in our living room, where nearby purrs our cat Marmalade. We share stories. Poetry. We laugh. Ask questions. Sometimes cry. It’s what 30 years of friendship together does.

Meg shared a poem with me recently, by Aurora Levins Morales, a Puerto Rico born Latina Feminist. I love the call from the Grandmothers, the summons, when I think of what swirls and challenges in the world, in my world. I love the invitation to meet at the corner — for every life is precious.

Enjoy

Summons
Aurora Levins Morales

Last night I dreamed
ten thousand grandmothers
from the twelve hundred corners of the earth
walked out into the gap
one breath deep
between the bullet and the flesh
between the bomb and the family.

They told me we cannot wait for governments.
There are no peacemakers boarding planes.
There are no leaders who dare to say
every life is precious, so it will have to be us.

They said we will cup our hands around each heart.
We will sing the earth’s song, the song of water,
a song so beautiful that vengeance will turn to weeping,
the mourners will embrace, and grief replace
every impulse toward harm.

Ten thousand is not enough, they said,
so, we have sent this dream, like a flock of doves
into the sleep of the world. Wake up. Put on your shoes.

You who are reading this, I am bringing the bandages
and a bag of scented guavas from my trees. I think
I remember the tune. Meet me at the corner.

Let’s go.