"Affirmation of Faith"

I believe in people.

I believe that in the darkest times, people can reach out thru the darkness and find another person's hand, and that is hope. And that is faith. And that is light.

I believe that it is possible to smile and sing and laugh and dance even when you've been living in a tent for three and a half months, when FEMA still hasn't given you a trailer, when it rained and thunderstormed the nite before, and your tent collapsed in on you and you had to sleep that nite in the cold, wet mud--I believe.

I believe that human kindness and goodness can persist after seeing nothing but debris for miles and miles and months and months.

I believe in rebuilding; I believe in rebirth. I believe in creation--creating songs to sing on cold, lonely nites, creating love in the most devastated places, creating communities who trust again.

I believe in the little boy at the library, who couldn't tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas because he thought whatever he asked for would only be destroyed, like all his other toys were. And I believe in the little boy who, when invited to pick out a single toy for Christmas, picked out a pink toy, because that was his sister's favorite.

I believe in the man who runs the liquor store, who couldn't bare to cry, but managed to mumble that people coming in to sing for him was the nicest thing any one had done for him in his whole life.


I believe in the little girl who is too shy to sing, and I believe in the boy who loves to dance.

I believe in chance, and I believe in luck. I believe in good fortune and good blessings. I believe in fate. I used to believe, that people believed, in one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. I can't believe that anymore. But I believe in you, and I believe in me, and I believe in our power to surpass our old beliefs and burst into new faith, like the glorious phoenix rising from the ashes of death, towards resurrection and life.

I believe all this because of every single one of you. I believe in the people on this bus. Because of you, I now believe that people can make a difference. I now believe in laughter and song, and I believe in the old lady's smile, and I believe in the young man's tears.

I believe in healing.

And, most importantly, I believe that in the end, you and your loved ones will be together again, in the place where love and pain, birth and death, joy and sorrow, belief and fear, are one.


I love you all. Thank you for teaching me to believe again.
-Liz