A poem by Sugarbird
When all the acronyms fade away and the jargon moves to the periphery
All that remains true are the strands we call community.
Decades of debate and research of the factors that enable communities to act.
And what do we know?
Exactly what we repeatedly forget.
Community is the center of transformative process and social change.
Why do we shy away from the only truth that has withstood the test of time?
Something to do with time…
It takes time to sit with community as it meets itself and remembers.
It takes time to allow for the messiness to play out.
It takes time to follow the unpredictability of finding a rhythm.
It takes time to get to a place of authenticity with self and with other.
It takes time to walk alongside community in reclaiming dignity.
It takes time to fail forward and fail backward without a veil.
It takes time to track with what may seem like bushwhacking through processes for collective wellbeing.
It takes time to discern how to transform the irreconcilable.
It takes time to learn the dance and song which brings community to life.
It takes time to discern the parts and to see the whole.
No matter how you word it, the inquiry remains the same.
Do we have the time?
Do we give the time?
Are we ready for time to pass?
Are we prepared for all it entails to be with….