So, I’m in my office. It’s on a 2nd floor, with windows near a couple of trees. Twice today, two different birds have hovered outside the window, looking in at me for a while before flying off–a humming bird and a bluejay. In considering hashtag for this, I hear in my head #IKnowWhy as in *I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,* and I think of this because, with the wildlife out there looking in at me, I wonder, who’s in the cage? And then, come with me, I’m immediately in the memory of Walter Scott, and one more life too easily, too brutally, too-familiarly expended. I look up *I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings* by Maya Angelou, for a refresher, and I read on Wiki: “In the course of Caged Bird, Maya transforms from a victim of racism with an inferiority complex into a self-possessed, dignified young woman capable of responding to prejudice.” What started out as love letter to nature–my current project theme–evolves into a cry for human nature, to drop the guise of us and them, the separation of earth and flesh, brown skin and white, to breathe out the jagged, held breath of fear, force, un-fulfillment, power, prejudice, willful blindness, and to breathe in recognition that the imbalance is killing us. Fear meets peace. Constriction meets safety for all. Earth justice meets social justice. Breathe in, breathe out.
About Pema Rocker
Pema Rocker is a writer, editor and the owner of Story Charmer, a service that
helps people talk their stories and expertise into books and content (and, incidentally, deeper personal understanding). Creator of Story Charming Parties, and former editor in in chief of a community magazine, she is driven by the value that conversation creates, and the stories that help us relate to one another.