From Red Bricks to Green Pines

I have always wondered, been curious why are most low-income housing areas and projects built with red bricks

As I journeyed to find my way home, reliving imagery evoked by Langston Hughes' "Mother to son", now with daughters and a son of my own it became transpicuous

Red; a color synonymous with stop, warning, dangerous, hazardous! As a child those red bricks were Hopeless, Oppressive, Miserable, and Empty! Being Hurt, Overwhelmed, Molested, and Endangered back then marked me with hidden and visible scars, that like the chalk outlines of the newest dead body served as a witness to the hazards and dangers that red brick represented.

Flash forward, looking at the thick green pines, that now serve as the backdrop for my kids playing ball and my husband snapping photos this past Mother's Day; the retrospective lens called life, fashioned by years of reshaping, rebuilding, and restoring; allow me now to see my way

To see my way forward, to discover my Heart, my Outcome, my Merit, and my Emancipation from the shackles of the Harmful, Ominous, Malignant, Enslavement I had known throughout my youth.

Its been quite the ride from red bricks to the green pines I now see in my own backyard. From suicidal to bridal; from motherless to motherhood and from pain to purpose, this journey has taken 41 years

Its been filled with high and lows, fears and tears, but has finally brought me Healing, Opportunity, Maturity, Euphoria.

And now I can truly say there is no place like home!