We all learn that change is the one constant of life, but long-term changes can still hit people hard. In Detroit the changes were so massive that the city once called "the Paris of the West" became a dangerous ghost town littered with burned-out buildings. The city seemed to be dying.
And yet... a few years down the road, if you went to Detroit, you'd see an amazing feat of creativity. With the help of a few visionaries and many, many determined, hard-working individuals, Motor City is becoming the largest urban farm on the planet. Abandoned houses have been knocked down and turned into garden plots. Markets for local farmers are being set up everywhere. "Michigan asparagus" is gaining fame.When I read about that this morning, I was reminded that reinventing is, at least emotionally, harder than inventing. Envisioning a new future for something so familiar requires not just a leap of faith, but a complete undoing of your memories and beliefs about it. The wrenching loss of the familiar can either destroy your hope, or inspire you to build it anew.
The people of Detroit are showing all of us how to turn sad loss into a hopeful path forward. May we all take that lesson with us as we go through our lives.
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