Joyful Ruins

I recently read an incredible book, Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. In one of the chapters, she writes about Onondaga Lake. I cried and had to write some kind of apology for how we, humans, have hurt native peoples and mother nature.

Forgive us for caring more about progress

than your preservation

For taking your beauty

and twisting, abusing you

into

a form unrecognizable

My heart hurts

knowing

you will probably never be the same

Forgive us if you can

for your waters being turned into

chemical baths

for the life held within you

dying off and never returning

for your rocks to be replaced

by walls of toxic waste

I ask for forgiveness

from the Onondaga people who

treasured you

and lived from your abundance

I ask for forgiveness

from your smallest rock

and tiniest raindrop that fell

into your waters

to the turtles, fish, insects

all that found sanctuary in you

I ask your forgiveness

and yet

We haven’t learned

after so much abuse

we continue

to choose

progress

So

I ask for forgiveness

while acknowledging

there is more

reconciliation

to be done