TransLove

True Love is Madness and Transformational. This type of Love demands action and transparency and in the process lives are transformed. A few weeks ago I was invited by a genius to check out her most precious works of photography, art, and film clips. Her work was magnificent including the political message of the patriarchal country she is from. Truly professor quality and her concepts has created a theoretical framework like no other. A great catch for Ohio State University or any university mastering in arts and design. I did not only gained insight to her creative mind I met another kindred spirit who is an enigmatic butterfly. As world travelers we visited the same countries and observed the pain of those we served.  Each photo captured a unique message of hope and resilience despite the dark world people lived with scarce resources. Daybreak comes from darkness and creates movement towards the light it yields to purposeful living where people help one another. Systemic injustices abroad and local create traumatized victims. The human activists become the agitators of the system while the oppressors ostracized them and desires to keep them silent. Lens of compassion activates social justice and some lose their lives in the process while others endure the cruel treatment while most of the victims keep quiet.
Compassion Fatigue is secondary trauma that is experienced by first responders or people who work with trauma victims. Imagine how you would feel working in refugee camps, in an orphanage filled with sexually exploited children, even visiting our 4 hr Drop-In Center? Sometimes humanitarians lose their heartiness and become heartless in the helping process. The key to connect with hurting folks is empathy and compassion and self-care leads to dunamis power. Lack of Self-Care is the primary reason for compassion fatigue. Anyone who works directly with victims including a store clerk seeing a child steal a pack of cookies can be effected. Mental health professionals, cops, EMTs, nurses, news reporters, photographers, advocates, friends, volunteers, and others who work with victims can be effected by compassion fatigue.  Media sales trauma drama and their are nonprofits that do the same especially with human trafficking victims.
It is madness to see people hurting while officials and leaders just don't have the courage to say enough is enough because they receive a paycheck to be silent and support themselves and their family. Is there a difference between a 14 year old selling crack on the corner street to support his family? Check your moral compass? Spending quality time with people abroad and here has been humbling and yet challenging to advocate for true social justice. I have been humiliated and ostracized because of whom I spend quality time with. The worst kind is the person that misunderstands me and places me in a box because I look, behave, and communicate different. I am not bitter I am better. I am exclusive not inclusive to the popular belief. I follow the teachings of Jesus who not once condemn folks and it is apathetic that Christianity has 100s of denominations. I thought there is 1 Hope, 1 Faith, 1 Baptism, 1 Way, 1 God who created us all in love to love everyone?  Jesus never condemned the religious folks actually they condemned and murdered Him. He was an out of the box person with a call for justice and to "JUST BE" with the "outcasts." He didn't marry and didn't desire prepubescent girls or boys. He didn't lead a rebellion? Nowadays, He would be called a glorified hippie who enjoy riding the bus in our city just to talk to people in love. He would not be taking any opiates just sharing thoughts and eating meals with all kinds of people who would be drawn to Him. He was a rebel and a social butterfly who created a butterfly effect wherever He was. It is not a surprise that women and children loved Him. Nowadays, these two groups are still 2nd and 3rd class citizens respectfully.

Katie Forbes photo in our Drop-In Center

1DIVINELINE2HEALTH defines compassion resilience we meet hurting folks where they at. I don't pimp out the stories of the people we serve in our safe houses and in the Columbus Jungle. The volunteers and folks who donate resources has contributed to our success. I have experienced compassion fatigue most of the times with the politrickcians. The victims, Macho (golden retriever), volunteers, and God through the teachings of Jesus have developed my Compassion Resilience. I exercise and maintain a few close relationships that don't judge me. I am not desensitized to the stories of the victims at all I work with actually we  have similar stories. I am mad at the officials who deny that Columbus has become a dope and dehumanizing city for folks who are hopeless and hurting. Tax break for developers and more red tape for front liners. City money to fund safety is being used for street repairs while alleys entertain criminal activities and there is no money for Drop-In Centers in high crime areas and not enough cops like the West Side need. Seriously, 12 cops for 24 hrs and their are approximately 100,000 people living on the West Side? Someone gets assaulted and it takes 4 or more hours for our cops to respond. I am mesmerized to experience a lot more cruelty in Columbus, Ohio in comparison to the countries abroad. Sometimes I shut down my mental DVR listening to music or painting.
Photography can be therapeutic. I avoid taking photos of the women breaking. I am sure those photos would sell. However, Katie Forbes, a local photographer is really special who I have warmed up to. She is safe, compassionate and human activist. Capturing a glimpse of time makes photography a special and meaningful journal. Who interprets the message the observer or photographer? Margaret Wolfe Hungerford said it best since we live in an opinionated world "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." Love can be captured in so many forms on a painting, drawing, photo, video, poetry, song, dance, and even playing an instrument. Love leaves an imprint between hearts. In darkness love is a powerful light. It transforms a mind, heart and spirit to be free of hurt, guilt and shame when you find a person to lean on whose heart beat rhymes with Love Does.
Love is Transglobal. Love looks down to the earth searching for willing hearts to be hands and feet of love and for joy to fill their surroundings. Traveling abroad taught me humility and respect to ALL human beings. Everyone desires to be loved from the moment born. Earth is diversity look at the creatures that inhabit the land, water and even those that fly in the sky. Ethnic diversity is a rich colorful bouquet of flowers with soft fragrances. I often wonder why is it that the 2 legged creatures who are superior to all living beings are so disconnected? We all have one duty which is to love, protect, honor and respect one another and keep our planet clean. Egalitarian societies seem natural for me to adapt. I am seen as an equal in the tribal communities. Someone is hurt or hungry people help one another. Children were my connection to the grown ups. No technology available just verbal, gestural and physical communication. A simple smile draws people. Playing games with marbles. Creating cars from match boxes. Delivering a baby without medical equipment is breath taking. These countries like America are plagued with greed and desensitized politicians and criminals who oppressed the masses. Every country I have traveled to I met kindred spirits; we experienced chiral moments during our darkest hours. It is in the depth conversations during hard times when kindred spirits abroad thrive in huts or under the moonlight.

Their vulnerability, transparency, love, faith, hope and grace coexist in this love tribe that made miracles happen. We receive God winks that provide us with supernatural strength to help the masses. People heal. People die. People live. Food and medical supplies multiply. A stranger gives you a personal message that only comes from God when self doubt and defeat is entertaining your mind when the surrounding is filled with death and illness. Vicarious trauma is real anywhere you serve. How you deal with it determines the outcome. I am not sorry at all when I feel the pain of the victims. I am not a robot. I have feelings and I am reactive with righteous anger. How can I deny feeling helpless when someone is being tortured on our streets and officials ignore your emails and phone calls. They capitalized and receive funding for our causes and the front liners receive nothing. As a leader to the broken I don't enable them at all. To my accusers PLEASE NOTE we simply provide basic needs. Local and international indigenous leaders thrived during harsh conditions and resistance. They possess an unconditional type of love that is transglobal and makes them eccentric, resilient and yet powerful in collaborative efforts that connect folks even to eternity. Sometimes our journeys are lonely but there is a type of Love that convinces me neither death nor life, nor people or spiritual beings, nor past mistakes or future mistakes that will separate me from the Love of God that motivates me. Love in action save lives. Why is it so hard for people living in safe communities to help in the inner city of Columbus? An East African Proverb states "Sticks in a bundle cannot be broken." Indigenous leaders are powerful in unity and you can become a part of their love tribe and see positive things happen.

Love is not only transformational, transglobal, it is transrelational that leads to transcendence. Human contact fills the life canvass with the strokes of paint brushes from different mediums, via interactions with people in good and dark places. Life is organized chaos forming a symphony. Mental dissonance is created when one allows peoples voices who hurt you become strongholds and bring conflict to your moral compass that is guided by love. It is in the hurts, challenges, tumultuous, catastrophic events love transfigures a lonely soul. It is the light that brings a divine connection to the Creator that is transcendental. A second wind. A gasp of fresh air coming surfacing from the ocean of despair. You see a hand and you grab it. No words expressed. Human contact brings healing. No need to speak. Eyes filled with tears connect. This type of Love creates a safe place. You learn to live, listen, cry, and experience someone else's pain. As a human activist my lifestyle is like human trafficking victims. How do I survive? I learn to trust a few and accomplish the unattainable through the inner power given by the Creator. This love comforts the unlovable of society. This love is compelling and holy insanity. Betrayal is brutal yet resilience becomes to grow in the presence of love. A person who is traumatized becomes a walking time bomb by not facing the shadows of guilt, shame, abandonment and self hatred and the skeletons in their closets. They are constantly moving not wanting to settle. Lashing out and rejecting those who care is not the solution it creates havoc in relationships and paranoia. Mental dissonance becomes their guru and the quest is for something or someone to bring mental peace. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is destructive and through professional help and a love tribe the healing process begins. A safe place is necessary where love, trust, faith and hope grows and the basic needs are met. The full-time operating Drop-In Center will become the safe place of gathering for those who are transitioning into recovery. A place for victims to no longer feel violated and feel human.
Maybe Donna Dalton and Bobbi Simpson murder could have been avoided? Hurting people deprived of their basic needs choose isolation and it is where depression, shame, guilt, suicide, and addictive behaviors arise. My transgender family has taught me a lot. However, their pain is much more complicated. I sometimes have to stay away to regroup. They promote "Just Be" whoever you want to be until you find your happiness. Lately, my transgender family find me before I find them. Why are the transgender leaders in government offices not helping the trench workers? Why are the leaders not advocating for safe housing for this vulnerable population? There is no safe house in our city for transgender folks. The human trafficking victims have taught me a lot they come in all age, color, shape, size, gender, religious backgrounds and professions and if their basic needs are met then the healing can begin. Abraham Maslow's Hierachy of needs, is one of the theoretical framework of the nursing profession. People are motivated to self actualization as the physiological, psychological, and self-fulfillment needs are met which leads to a transcendental state. It is the AHA moment when the 5 senses are stimulated and neuroplasticity takes place and a traumatized person begins to heal by connecting with self and others. Faith overrides Fear.

East Coast Advocates Tamir & Misael

Since Mid Sept 2017 in the Columbus jungles I have seen lives lost tragically, attended funerals, invited to homeless camps and trap houses in all I connected with special folks. I had some joyful moments with both volunteers and victims. Truly my love tribe in other cities and abroad make it worth while to keep cutting through the red tape and jumping out of boxes.  In our moments of weakness we become strong. We learn to be silly despite the system depressive tactics. Most of our concerns are for the kids and future generation. What will be your legacy to this generation? Nowadays, more children are depressed, socially inept, and alarming rates of teen suicide is contributing to teens self medicating their emotional pain with opiates. It doesn't matter where you at Love defies systemic rules and save lives with TransLove. The golden rule is the absolute rule and seeks the highest good for others both young and wise. We need more of TransLove. Only a few I have come in contact who understand this type of love it is the sixth sense of a social justice activist. This earthly love continues in eternity because in heaven there is no need for hope and faith.

Amber Evans Freedom Fighter

This blog is dedicated to a friend and comrade on the front lines, Amber Evans whose life was cut short. She is TransLove. Rest in Power of Love. I was introduced to her 3 yrs ago through Molly Shack, from the Columbus People's Partnership. Personally we shared many ideas in common especially with the children and victims of human trafficking and violence. We were a part of the first CARE Coalition class about Trauma Informed and Responsive Care. Amber was a rebel with a JUSTICE cause. She was involved in many social causes including prison reform and ending police violence in black communities and sex workers. A gap has been left by many of the grassroots movements that serve in the Linden and West Side area. She was a Brilliant, Brave, and Beautiful Butterfly who created peace circles during challenging times when injustices plagued poor communities. God only knows the pain that social justice activist goes through. We need one another. We need empathy instead of apathy among the grass roots movements. We know our path is more lonely than others. Many are misunderstood because our Translove compels us to demand justice and accountability to the leaders. We are not perfect. Yet PERFECT Love Drives out Fear. Sometimes you want to call it quits and then you realize you have come to far to leave your tribe behind there are many lives at stake. It is up to us to love one another and ring the bells of freedom in our neighborhoods. We don't need to wait for politrickcians to do their jobs we can do it ourselves! We are are the catalyst of change!  We have an earthly assignment do you know yours? We are the agitators of the oppressors. We are resilient in the midst of resistance it is in our DNA. We are the liberators of Love to the haters and naysayers. We pave the way for the next generation to use truth and love and not violence to eliminate fear in our communities. We empower through common sense and knowledge. We choose to revitalize our community. We don't need to call the cops or Franklin County Children Services to protect our children. We become the blended family to the child being raised by a single parent. Children in poverty stricken communities need love, discipline, hope, faith and grace to develop resilience. Who can help? Support a grass root movement by using your talents or monetarily. Dr. Martin Luther King said it best "Power without love is ruthless and aggressive and Love without power is sentimental and anemic." Let us create safe places among each other first in your home then in places you congregate and see lives thrive through Translove power that heals our world.