With our feet planted firmly on the ground

For many, the days following Thanksgiving in the United States are truly trying…after taking time to be thankful for all we have in our lives, we are bombarded by Christmas Consumerism, being pushed from every direction to buy more stuff.

So I’d like to share a moment I had today with the Genesis Spinning Plant Cooperative that helped me to put all that into perspective. Today I took a delegation over to talk with the Genesis group and although I have heard them speak hundreds of times, I found myself once again moved by them and newly inspired.

After talking to the group about their last three years of building their factory, telling how they sell tortillas or take in washing to help ends meet at home, Jamileth begins to talk about how difficult the end of this year is. “We’ve sacrificed so much for these three years, and to come up on another Christmas with nothing to give our children is really hard.” Others around the circle nod their heads and Jamileth continues. “It’s horrible to go home and have your children run up to you and say ‘Mommy, Mommy what did you bring me?’ and for three years I’ve had to say ‘Nothing.’ But the machinery is now on its way. I have faith in God and I believe that after so much sacrifice, next year and all the years after that will be ones of abundance.”

Rosa, normally boisterous, is uncharacteristically quiet and reflective. “We are not the same women who started working here three years ago,” she says. I look around the circle at their faces…I see that indeed they are older, thinner…but these determined women are all sitting tall, and I realize that she is right. “This project has given me a sense of self-worth,” Rosa continues. “We came here and worked like men, and we know that we can do anything that a man can do. Now a man can’t say to me that he is better than me because I know that the only differences between us are superficial. We have all changed, and grown,” Rosa pauses and then says in a quiet but powerful voice, “and we now have our feet firmly planted on the ground.”

When I first heard the Genesis folks talk about their sacrifice and the difficulties with their families, I felt embarrassed…and then felt guilty…and then helpless…and I wanted to turn away. I believe that’s what we all feel when confronted by real need. But if these women have the strength to go on, to go through one more Christmas without anything to give their children, then how can I turn away? I can’t. Instead I turn toward them, and open myself up to have my heart broken. Life is so hard, and all we have are these delicate threads that connect us as human beings…we have to allow ourselves care about one another. After our talk the delegation hugged all the members of Genesis.

I am so grateful for what these women teach me every day. I am grateful to them for sharing the hard parts of this journey, I am grateful for the ways in which they help me grow. They help me keep my feet planted firmly on the ground. – Becca