Posts filed under 'Paris Hatcher'
Wanderlust 4 Life!
It finally happened. The two weeks that seemed so long and so short to get to Atlanta is here. While pedaling thru LA, MS, and AL, the hills, people, conversations, lovely lady legs, and beautiful outdoors had me so caught up that getting to Atlanta just happened. The 400 or however many miles it took to get here just flew by. And it is easy when your days are filled with sun soaked/damaged days of riding, reproductive justice conversations on the road, chammied hands, sandwiches, and ice cold water. The world doesn’t seem so tough and at the same time is so hard when you have a community of women to support you, to make consensus with, to feed with food, words, and cuddles… and to do one of the most radical things we as warriors can ever do- take the time to LOVE.
It took love for me each day. Love in the face of fear of being able to endure the 50-60 mile days, the hills, the hard conversations, the reality of my body moving thru the South and my historical relationship with the land and this region. Love helped to guide me, keep me present, and remind me of my fierceness. Love was exercised. It was the climbing of a hill and the sweet, fast, breeze right after, the honk of the wagon, the waving of flags, a massage train, and knowing that you will never be too far from the support you need.
I was given the gift of love by 11 women who all heard the call to be bold, fierce, and courageous. In each of your own ways(that became our ways), I have been so deeply moved. From making a home each night with my amazing Megumi who I adore and respect immeasurable, to laughing to tears and filled with wit by Liz Bright and my love Elisa, to talking about sex and sexuality with Heatha, to being inspired by everyone, and experiencing the depth, beauty, challenge, and the possibility of real, meaningful connection across lines of difference and experience with my 2nd love Erin. You have no idea what what those moments have meant to me, my spirit, and to my understanding of our crazy world.
And then there is Nora. I do not have the words for the immense love, respect, joy, and delight this woman gives me. Nora, you are a gift, a solider, a visionary, a doer. I am amazed by you. Your spunk, your fire, your desire to turn things right side up. I love you in a way that will always endure- get ready
Right now, I am sitting at my desk at SPARK, dreaming about ya’ll. I am processing this journey, crying a little, laughing too. It was the hardest thing to leave all of you last night. To make it back to my other world filled with people, community, doggies, and blissful things that love me and I love. It so hard because I love Wanderlust in a way that I never expected. I never knew I needed it until I had it.
I’m plotting my return. Making a way back. I am not sure what or how that will look like but being with ya’ll again, riding my bike and taking up space, thinking about reproductive justice, and revelling in the push and pull of love keeps this pouty Paridisical a float!
You are fierce, bold, and amazing and this is LOVE!
paris
p.s. get ready for your neck tattoos ladies!!!
3 comments June 9, 2008
Feel the Burn
Monday night I had the luck to have Nora and Mary to pass thru Atlanta and stay with us. I’ve been excited, nervous, and apprehensive about the bike tour. Being the procrastinator I tend to be, I think I was planning a way to not go at the last minute(Did you know that Nora?) . But with my train tix finally booked to NOLA(I booked it last night), I am on my way! So what about my training. Yes, the training! I have been taking a delicious cycling class for months now(toughening up my rear) and doing cardio but I have not been as hard core as some of the other Wanderlusties. I just got my bike for the tour on Saturday. Her name is Shug and I am stoked!
I’ve been riding my other bike around town. Nora and I biked to my job yesterday-7.3 miles- and it felt good. And though 7.3 is only a dent in what we will have to do- its one mile and one pedal at a time!
As I have been getting ready- I believe I will take on the feat of packing tonight, I have been thinking about my feelings of privilege and nervousness.
I feel so privileged to be making this trip. A) a privilege to be able to meet new folks, be out in the world exerting my body everyday, and connect with others in our shared human experience as healers and warriors. B) a privilege to have a job that will allow me to travel for this amount of time and values this kind of participation as valuable to building a movement for reproductive justice C) that I have the love and support from family and community that can allow me to follow my passion. D)and that I have my health and strength to be able to take on this giant task.
I also feel nervous. The history of the South is an ever constant reel that plays in mind. I worry about feeling and being safe in a part of the country where racism is manifested in active KKK chapters, the Jena 6, and the real often unheard stories of women of color who have been raped, forcibly sterilized, and who been locked up in alarming rates. I feel nervous about being one of a small number of women of color on the trip especially as we talk about reproductive justice(will folks think pro-choice is reproductive justice? will it be understood the importance of women of color coining the term and framework, will I be tokenized or my culture co-opted-” Can I touch your hair” or” You know that is so ghetto”).
And in my feeling of priveldge and nervousness is my overwhelming hopefulness in this process that I believe will be transformative. This voyage that can help us in listening to each other, being present, being an ally, stepping up, articulating when we are afraid, stepping back, and let’s us learn our bodies in a way that we are often disconnecting from.
I am hopeful that I will be on this trip with others who will value the intense conditions under which we are asking our bodies to function are the same ways in which we can push our hearts and minds. See you in NOLA!
With Shug and rj on my mind!
paris
1 comment May 21, 2008
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