{"id":12498,"date":"2015-02-26T20:10:32","date_gmt":"2015-02-26T20:10:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/challengedetroit.org\/blog\/marthacavazos\/?p=37"},"modified":"2015-02-26T20:10:32","modified_gmt":"2015-02-26T20:10:32","slug":"widening-circles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/widening-circles\/","title":{"rendered":"Widening Circles"},"content":{"rendered":"

I can\u2019t believe it! It\u2019s the halfway mark of Challenge Detroit Year 3! And because I am a very, very reflective person, I thought I would share some of my mid-year thoughts.<\/p>\n

Since this past month has been unbelievably frigid, I\u2019ve spent more time inside of our little Southwest haven with some books, TV, lots of warm coffee, tea and, of course, tacos. Snuggling with our kitten, Yonce, or gazing out onto the snowy boulevard, I\u2019ve been sitting with two books whose ideas have really empowered me not only as I reflect on the last six months, but as I look towards the second half of the Challenge Detroit year.<\/p>\n

\"outside\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the books I\u2019ve been sifting through is a collection of poems by Rainer Maria Rilke called, \u201cBook of Hours.\u201d Below is one poem in particular that struck me —<\/p>\n

I live my life in widening circles<\/p>\n

that reach out across the world.<\/p>\n

I may not complete this last one<\/p>\n

but I give myself to it.<\/p>\n

I circle around God, around the primordial tower.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been circling for thousands of years<\/p>\n

and I still don\u2019t know: am I a falcon,<\/p>\n

a storm, or a great song?<\/p>\n

This poem reminds me of our endless journeys as humans, as Challenge Detroit fellows, as Detroiters, as Michiganders, as global citizens. When I read the poem, I am reminded of the value of giving my whole self to a cause without knowing the outcome. I\u2019m left reflecting: Am I doing this? Am I giving myself to these widening circles? What lies within my widening circles?<\/p>\n

The final sentence of this poem is most poignant to me. What path am I on? Is it possible for me to define my path? I like how this poem ends in questioning because it feels very human to me — to want to know and understand. In Detroit and in the fellowship, I feel like I am constantly searching for more understanding, more facts, more stories, more figures on how and why we can make this city anew. Really, the end of this poem grounds me in these questions and reminds me to live among them as gracefully as I can.<\/p>\n

In my other February read, Cheryl Strayed\u2019s \u201cTiny Beautiful Things,\u201d she writes, \u201cWe are here to build the house.\u201d And so as I move forward in the fellowship, I think, what kind of house am I building? What kind of house are we building? I don’t anticipate a clear answer to this question at the end of the program, but I’m excited for the journey!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I can\u2019t believe it! It\u2019s the halfway mark of Challenge Detroit Year 3! And because I am a very, very reflective person, I thought I would share some of my mid-year thoughts. Since this past month has been unbelievably frigid, I\u2019ve spent more time inside of our little Southwest haven with some books, TV, lots […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":252,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/252"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12498\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}