Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: My Heart is Heavy

[Fiona Frank (fionafrank]

older woman English Jewish cohouser here , from Lancaster Cohousing in the
north west of England, whose heart is breaking. I can't bear it and spend
much of the time crying (with people) or screaming (at the radio).
Many of my neighbours are reaching out to me.
Thank you SO MUCH for asking Ann.
It's a dreadful world out there.

I'm about to go travelling for a year (starting in Brazil for 6 months or
so then  going through the US briefly up to  Canada and back to the US,
(still very happy to connect with cohousing projects esp on the west coast
and in Quebec btw in the second half of next year) and. ......  I suddenly
found myself thinking 'oh, that's good, i've got a new passport and it
doesn't have any Israel stamps in it'  and then 'oh, I forgot my NAME'
(as i'm named after the most famous Jewish girl in the WORLD, I think they
may spot me 'when they come for the Jews'.)

Love
Fiona (Anne) Frank.



On Thu, 2 Nov 2023 at 16:03, Ken Winter <ken [at] sunward.org> wrote:

> Dear very white, meditating, semi-buddhist, power wheelchair riding shiksa
> w/ a sprained ankle ~
>
> Yes, your caring (and mine) matters, in a very limited but also somehow
> infinite way.  One way it matters a bit more (and makes a bit more
> difference) is when we share our heavy hearts (and the love in them) with
> one another by communicating like this.
>
> ~ Ken (very white, meditating, octogenarian goy w/ a so-far-unsprained
> ankle)
> ~ Sunward Cohousing, Ann Arbor MI
>
> On Thu, Nov 2, 2023 at 11:33 AM Ann Zabaldo <zabaldo [at] earthlink.net> 
> wrote:
>
> > My dear best cohousers near and far …
> >
> > Acknowledgement:   This list is created to help cohousers in the living
> > in, building of, and maintenance of cohousing communities. I promise
> > there’s a tie in.
> >
> > Let me also acknowledge that I am writing this under pressure this
> morning
> > to get to medical appointments, submit my bills to close out our TVC
> > budget, get these empty boxes out of the way so I don’t keep rolling over
> > them (power wheelchair rider), put the milk back in the refrigerator
> before
> > I leave and feed the dog.  Oh. I don’t have a dog...
> >
> > Since Oct. 7th,  from where I sit now I have looked at a world coming
> > apart.
> >
> > Yet, I live in this warm comfortable space called cohousing where people
> > try to meet standards of human interactions even when we fail miserably.
> > We fall on our faces a lot.
> >
> > From this space, it is unfathomable to me that there is so much hate in
> > the world that leads to despicable acts of violence.  Students being
> > harassed on campus?  A six year old boy stabbed to death?  Cemeteries
> > burned?  What is happening to my world out there?  Operative words:  “out
> > there."
> >
> > Cliff Note version of what I understand:  when we marginalize people,
> > dehumanize people, racialize people, ______fill in the blank, when people
> > are separated from each other, we open flood gates through which pour
> > ancient and contemporaneous rivers of fear, fear, fear … leading to RAGE.
> > Absolutely RAGE.  We see it in Road Rage and we see it now in this
> cesspool
> > of outrageous acts throughout the world.People separated from each other
> by
> > eons of distrust, etc.
> >
> > Cohousing communities are antidotes to this separation.
> >
> > And yet ...
> >
> > Here’s the tie in … I hope.
> >
> > And yet ...
> >
> > Where are our cohousing voices?  Not the standard political voices.  No.
> > The cohousing politics of living face to face everyday w/ differences far
> > and wide. I realized this morning I haven’t reached out to my own
> community
> > much less the 185 built communities and 200+ incubating their hearts out.
> >
> > I haven’t seen anything on this list although I may certainly have missed
> > conversations posted here.
> >
> > I haven’t said anything to my own community members or posted anything to
> > our own list.
> >
> > How are our Muslim, Arab, Jews and all other members of the panoply of
> > cohousing thinking about their safety in the world right now?  Have I
> > asked?  Just ‘cause I feel safe … how do others in my very own community
> > feel?  Have I reached our to them to let them know I stand with you?
> >
> > Comparatively, I have lived in a safe community for 23 years.  I live a
> > life I love and live powerfully.  I’m so excited and about cohousing I’m
> > evangelical about it. Beware those of you standing in grocery lines w/
> me …
> >
> > And yet, (here’s that “yet” again) I wonder … is cohousing part of the
> > problem by creating cozy places to live?  I don’t really need to go
> beyond
> > our "front gate” to live out my life.
> >
> > Or does my cohousing life give me the foundation to believe we can change
> > the world?  Because, you know  … we can.
> >
> > Am I living in a fantasy that the caring of a very white, meditating,
> > semi-buddhist, power wheelchair riding shiksa w/ a sprained ankle mean
> > anything given the turmoil around us?  Believe me … I wonder … I do
> wonder.
> >
> > So I ask you now, all of you:  how are you doing today?
> >
> >
> > Best —
> >
> > Ann Zabaldo
> > Takoma Village Cohousing
> > Washington, DC
> > Ex. Dir. & Mbr. Board of Directors
> > Mid Atlantic Cohousing
> > Principal, Cohousing Collaborative, LLC
> > Falls Church, VA
> > 202.546.4654
> > zabaldo [at] earthlink.net
> >
> > People can be divided into two groups: those who think they are right.
> >
> >
> > _________________________________________________________________
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> >
> >
> >
> >
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