Dear Detroit,
You were my first love, my heart’s home. You have helped me to come home to myself. You have shown me, through your waterways, the way you grow community, Grace Lee Boggs, and Field Street that it is possible for spiritual practice and justice to not just co-exist, but to be the foundation of change. I have only been connected to you for the last 20 years and, as an Asian American, in the largest Black city in the U.S., I have made many mistakes and have so much to unlearn and learn. I am sorry for the ways that I have fallen short and am committed to growing a more fuller and whole version of myself. Thank you for never giving up on me. The ways that you navigate contradictions and continue to break through cracks in the concrete to create life is inspiring. Even with all of my shortcomings, you have been grace to me. You have shown me that grace is an incredibly powerful way of being that can hold me as I move through these chaotic times in the world and also, literally move to a new country. Grace is choosing life giving ways in the face of a death dealing reality.
Earth Works Urban Farm, 2005, photo by Marcia Lee
Remember when I first came to you, Detroit? It was 2004 and I thought I had everything figured out. I still have a lot of work to do on this, but back then, whew, I thought the only way to make change in the world was to burn down oppressive systems. Then, I met Rick Samyn, the friar who started Earthworks Urban Farm. He showed me that cemeteries are some of the best green spaces. He taught me how honeybees respond to the energy that we give out, if we are agitated, then the bees are agitated. He had been a friar for decades and, yet, when his ex-wife came back into his life, he left everything for love. Even though they lived two completely different lives and had very different ways of seeing the world, the depth of connection, the commitment to love was stronger than difference. His first commitment was not to any institution, but to love. Grace is softness overcoming hard. Over time, as we know from the Tao Te Ching, water wears away even the hardest things, but, as Grace Lee Boggs said, “we have to be in a place long enough to see it change.”
March2014 when Grace was 98 and wanted an iPad. I was trying to show her how to use the iPad and we took this photo.
One of the biggest gifts that you gave me was my relationship with Grace Lee Boggs. As with you, she transformed me. Not so much with her words, but how she treated me, asked questions, and shared ideas. On the surface, Grace seemed a fierce philosopher who challenged us to reimagine the world through a dedicated commitment to grappling with tough questions and struggle. To me, she was more a loving grandmother. Perhaps it was because we met in her later years, but with me, she was soft. We would run out of words and just sit together and love each other with our presence. She listened very intently to young people and always brought a few of us into the room during her meetings with visitors (activists, scholars, movement leaders) from out of town. In those moments, I saw how we can change each other through deep listening. As various social movements we witnessed in the U.S. grew and transformed, so too did Grace’s sense of self, community, and identity. She grew to embrace and reflect upon more seriously her positionality as an Asian American woman alongside the movements of her time. At the end of her life, her caregivers would often play home improvement shows all day. They meant well, but that wasn’t her. One time, I put in a DVD of the documentary about Grace and, even though she physically could not get out of bed, she tried to do so because it reminded her she still had work to do. Grace is an unwavering commitment to deeply rooted values and hope for humanity. Grace is being strong in one’s convictions and yet allowing oneself to be changed by reality.
You, Detroit, have been magnificent in the ways that you have changed with the times. When the world disregarded you, you did not lose your way. Even when they buried your rivers underground, you always flowed towards freedom and brought along as many people as you could. Even in my short amount of time with you, I have experienced how you transform movements. In 2010, newly trained in restorative justice, I reached out to learn with other practitioners and found that other people were also yearning for connection. Based on people’s requests, we created a network of restorative justice practitioners and shared the basics of the practice. Although the organization did not last, the seeds of our work as well as the work of so many others contributed pointedly to the normalizing and growth of the principles and practices of restorative justice. . Grace is never knowing what our impact might be, but that we keep doing our inner work so that our outer work can better align with what is needed in these times.
Healing by Choice! affirmation postcard, painted by Yexenia Venegas
I also experienced this in your embrace of healing justice. When healing justice was introduced through the work of Cara Page, the Kindred Southern Healing Collective, Charity Hicks, and many more committed healers/activities at the US Social Forum in 2010, there was some initial hesitation and resistance to the idea that healing could and should be done in community, that rest is a necessary part of activism. But now, the belief that healing is needed for us to bring about justice in our communities is much more common and becoming more integrated into the way we be with each other. In recent history, Detroit, you also nurtured the seeds of the urban farming movement, Asian American movement, the digital justice movement, Black-led youth organizing, mutual aid networks, and more.. Grace is healing in slow and roundabout ways through courageous commitment to spirit, self, earth, and community.
These ways that you have grown our souls are not because of the government or any one institution but because of the ways in which everyday people commit every day to caring for each other. When I first connected with Field Street, where Grace and Jimmy lived, the city didn’t even plow the street when it snowed. Neighbors cleared the road for each other. In 2016, my partner and I were gifted a home at the other end of the block from Grace’s house by John Mathais and Deepti Reddy, friends who did not have much money, but had a shared vision. You introduced me to wonder, generosity, and unexpected abundance. For example, around the time we moved in, a neighbor biked up to us and said,” This is a reverse hold-up, here is $5, you have to take it.” He would not let us leave until we took the money. Field Street is a microcosm of you, Detroit. The ways in which neighbors meet each other in our humanity and provide mutual aid for the community has resonated throughout my time with you. We have worked with our neighbors and mutual aid groups to distribute food that would otherwise be thrown away from Trader Joes, Whole Foods, and more. We never know how much food will come, but we always share so that everyone gets something. As En Sawyer says: “In the universe, the only place where there is waste is in the human mind.” Grace is, all of who you are is welcome here. Grace is belonging and creative, patient visioning together. Grace is trusting what appears to be waste, and always has the possibility for life.
So much more life has happened in between and around these stories. On Field Street, in Taproot Sanctuary, I gave birth to my two children and held space in my womb for the child that is on the way. Since having kids, so many more underground tunnels and mycelial connections have opened. In my time with you, I have lost my way, made mistakes, learned new ways of being, been supported when I’ve been underground, and throughout all of this, you never let me go. I know that you have not been perfect either, but you have kept me rooted in the truth that grace is watching out for each other; paying attention to the signs of the times; and if we keep on changing our tactics with the times, “we will make a way out of no way.” ~An African American Folk Saying that I learned of through Jimmy Boggs.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I am so grateful for you. I have talked a lot, but please know that I am listening. I want to hear your stories, too. How has grace shown up for you?
Your love is everything. Even as we part ways, for now, know that you are always with me and I will always have your back.
Love, Marcia
Marcia Lee looks to nature’s rhythm, God’s time, her children, and her elders to guide her journey. She is committed to finding joy in small things, deep listening, and healing justice. Currently, this shows up as being a mother, healing centered leadership coach, friend, Courage and Renewal retreat leader, wife, tai chi teacher, daughter, popular education facilitator, sister, and Taproot Sanctuary space holder.
