Carol A. Hand
Oh little child how will you survive?
You were born with a light in your heart that shone from your eyes.
Ancestors will walk with you to keep you alive.
With a gift to see beauty in others,
Feel their fears and their pain, you’ll carry a burden words cannot name –
An inheritance from your Ojibwe great grandmothers.
Born in age with rules already in place
To exploit and control, to oppress and enslave, to extinguish hope
That we could all live lives of grace.
You lived many places but could never fit in.
Your attempts to escape from the burden and grief were all wasted time
The ancestors spoke – it’s past time to begin.
They walked beside you and guided the way
As you fumbled and struggled to live with courage and kindness and honor your path.
But it’s changed now with age, it’s a new day.
You’ve earned time to retreat
To the world of your thoughts, to be guided by dreams sent from the wise ones. Have patience and trust
When people can hear you, you’ll meet.
Note: The greeting well met “is an expression of welcome, and means no more than the modern good to see you. Shakespeare used it for example in As you like it…”
Copyright Notice: © Carol A. Hand and carolahand, 2013-2016. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Carol A. Hand and carolahand with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Voices from the Margins 
Lovely, Carol.
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Peter, I hope you know how grateful I am that you are part of my online family. I value your passionate commitment to advocating for those whose voices are ignored.
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Thank you, Carol. And, ditto. 🙂
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Your faith is so beautiful and inspiring. I love your ancestors and you! ❤
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Thank you so much for your kindness, Cindy. I love you as well and appreciate the kindness and beauty you bring into my life.
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Beautiful Carol. And so sad.
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Thank you for your kind and thoughtful comment, Keane 🙂 In some ways this poem did evoke deep sadness for me when I wrote it – but it also helped me make sense of the past.
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That’s really beautiful, Carol. A story of living true to who you must be, no matter what, and having the courage to follow the heart path. Now, you share your wisdom, and I am grateful for that.
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You are such a kind and gentle friend, Nicci. Thank you for your ever-thoughtful comments.
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Beautiful! I always bring something with me when visiting your blog. Thanks.
PS. The blog’s new visual identity is really gorgeous.
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Thank you so much for your kind words, Lucile. I feel the same way about your blog. The lovely photo you posted of the young woman in India continues to make me think about issues. The photo conveys a lovely and deeply moving story and leaves me wondering if she will be able to realize her dreams.
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You’re most welcome, Carol. Thanks for being so kind.
I agree that this picture triggers many reflections; it was taken in 2005 and I never forgot it. It was heartbreaking to see the way she lived. I reckon that my perception is biased from my own references, as she wasn’t as unhappy as I was with her life. Still, it saddened me to see those people living in extreme poverty in this century. I am afraid she will not realize her dreams.
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Thanks Carol for your authenticity and honesty and also your courage to be true to yourself and your ancestors.
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I appreciate your kind and thoughtful comments a great deal, Jackie. Thank you 🙂
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Reminds me of a poem composed by an anonymous native American child around 45 years ago – as I recall Johnny Carson read it on the Tonight Show:
“Grandfather sings and I dance
Grandfather speaks and I listen.
When I sing, who will dance?
When I speak, who will listen?
Grandfather dies and I cry.
Grandfather’s buried and I miss him.
When I die, who will cry?
When I’m buried, who will miss me?”
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This is such a beautiful poem that raises crucial questions about the future. Thank you for sharing this, Stuart.
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“You lived many places but could never fit in.
Your attempts to escape from the burden and grief were all wasted time
The ancestors spoke – it’s past time to begin.”…I can so relate to this verse. I spent much of my younger life running from my burden, my grief and most of all…myself. Someone must have been looking out for me because I shouldn’t be here.
From the very time I came across your writings at Intersistere, I knew I was onto something special. I’m sure the ancestors are proud, Carol.
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I appreciate your kind and thoughtful comment, Jeff. You are among the people who inspired me to write this. I can see the burden you have carried (and still do) in your poetry and prose, and the beauty of your spirit as you continue to work for social justice despite the darkness of these times. I am honored to count you among my friends.
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“With a gift to see beauty in others,
Feel their fears and their pain, you’ll carry a burden words cannot name”
You have such a gift for words that help us all see the beautify in others:-)
You are a beautiful soul…I need to stop by more often to read more posts of
“real” people just like the “velveteen rabbit” and old “skin horse”:-)
“The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others.
He was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the
seams underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled
out to string bead necklaces. He was wise, for he had seen a long
succession of mechanical toys arrive to boast and swagger, and
by-and-by break their mainsprings and pass away, and he knew that they
were only toys, and would never turn into anything else. For nursery
magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that
are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all
about it.
“What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by
side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. “Does
it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”
“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that
happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just
to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”
“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.
“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When
you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”
Carol …to be real is something not everyone achieves…you have!:-)
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Robbie, thank you so much for your kindness, and for sharing the excerpt from The Velveteen Rabbit. The Skin Horse is one of my all time favorite characters. There are days when I certainly feel “so old that .. [my] brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath…” Like you, I love the wisdom he shares about what it takes to become “real.” The beauty of your stories, photos, and urban gardens was among the inspirations for this post. I would add that only one who is inspired by inner beauty is able to see it in others. Your inner beauty shines through in your stories and comments to others.
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I miss visiting your blog:-)…need to come inside and read again! being beautiful on the inside is the best:-) the other goes south-lol
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I miss reading your blog as well – I am always deeply touched by your beautiful photos, wise words about gardens, and the lovely conversations you share with your friends 🙂
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🙂 I am realizing lately that it is not so much “about” what our blog identity “is”…it is about our spirits:-) it is ” what” we are saying…we have a common core that is sometimes not visible to the human eye…our words + photos capture something that we all feel..it connects us all..+ that is what I enjoy about blogging over the cyber fence…we live all over the world but some how we have a spirit that connects us + when we find each other… we are loyal + truthful which is hard to find today:-)
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These are such important insights, Robbie. I remember laughing to myself as I remembered that it was Bush (Senior, I think) who referred to a “thousand points of light” as a way to cut social welfare programs and replace them with charity organizations. But honestly, that is often how envision the connections to the many good-hearted, incredibly talented people I have met through blogging. I agree that people’s work shows who they really are, and it is a gift to be able to experience “a spirit that connects us.”
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shoot..we are just a bunch of skin horses in different places:-)
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