The Callender lady speaks!!!

So I had a moment this morning I won't soon forget:

Here's a bit of background info first....In 2 days we will be completely moved off of Callender Street - our home since I've lived in Toronto. And as Shelley and I were loading the car to move some of her boxes I was thinking about the Callender Street lady - who I have been watching closely these past three years. She lives in one of the 2 group homes on our street and she has never spoken in all of the time that we've lived there. I have been feeling sad about the fact that I've never had a real conversation with this woman who I have thought so much about. There is just something about her.....She shines far beyond her obvious brokenness....She is the patron Saint of forgotten girls. She has just had this hard edge about her that has always held us at arms length....I have been so compelled by her that I even wrote a song about her....my moving wish was to speak to her before the move.

So as I was getting my bike this morning - this woman - who most often walks on the other side of the street in order to avoid her neighbors....stops in front of me with her sacs coffee in hand - turns and faces me with a huge smile (she rarely smiles) and says (almost yells) "Hello!!! How are you?? And how is your puppy?" I almost felll over in shock. And when i composed myself I told her that I didnt have a dog...and then she told me that I look just like another lady she sees who has a big brown dog. She thinks we're twins....Anyway - it may seem small - but it is actually one of the biggest most beautiful gifts I've recieved in a long time. I could not have thought of a better or more appropriate parting gift. ...thanks GOd.

new song just written...

i'll stop at nothing
just to get to you
i'll bang down the doors
i'll crash through the roof
i will walk for days
in the scorching heat
i'll lay my body down
prostrate at your feet

because i really need you like a father
come to me
i need you to feed me like a mother
come to me
I am helpless. helpless
I am like your little child again.
because I really need you like a father
i need you to feed me like a mother
because I really need you like my father
i need you to feed me like my mother
come to me come to me come to me.

Baton Rouge

Long time no write...

Just arrived back from a week in Baton Rouge, Louisianna - part of one of the many small bands of people trying to bring a small bit of relief to a place that is seeing so little of that these days. dark days for the deep south. It's hard right now to think that what we accomplished was anything more than a teeny tiny drop in the bucket....actually...that is exactly what it was. But I would go back and do it all over again anyway.

It's been a bit overwhelming to process everything and part of me wants to hop on a bus and plant myself there for the next 6 months...

A lament needs to be written for Louisianna. I never imagined in a million years that I would feel this much love for the southern United States. Who knew?? I think it's a humanity thing. It's the realization that it could so easily be me living on a matress in a makeshift shelter with 8000 other people and only one shower...ONE SHOWER!!!!! It could be me who has lost my home, my job, members of my family, virtually everything familiar to me.....85 babies in a hospital in Louisianna with nobody to claim them...as mothers would pass them off franticallly to helicopters in order to save them.....old ladies cowering in thier closet as trees swirl and crash in around them....a young security guard chain smoking after a day of watching bodies being dragged from a river....young men and women looking through boxes of old clothes to find underwear for thier children....hours lining up for food - for ice - for help help help/

But there is hope. I saw it. The city will be rebuilt....and there will be dacning again on the streets of New Orleans.

peace,
-Julia