My grandparents met in Belgium after Poland was liberated. They came to the USA by boat, and their first child was conceived on board. They arrived in NY to find that their sponsor in the states had died during the crossing. Luckily, his daughter agreed to sponsor them. One day, while walking in the Bronx, a woman confronted my grandmother. My grandmother was terrified by strangers, but the women turned out to be her brother’s former girlfriend- after everything they’d been through, it was like seeing family.
We may be uprooted, but we find ways to create and build families and communities, and welcome those who follow us, even if we don’t know them, and they come from a place other than ourselves.
We also thank the people whose lands these are, and try to do better than those before us at respecting their lives and their relationship to this place.