The Open Door is a residential community dedicated to resisting war and violence, dismantling racism, sexism, and heterosexism, abolishing the death penalty and building a stronger and more loving community by nurturing all members of our community including the homeless and prison inmates.  They open the house several days a week and offer many needed services such as soup kitchen, showers, phones, and medical care.  There are 4 different free clinics at the Open Door — basic medical, foot care, women’s, and for the past year herbal.

I have been fortunate to have spent close to a decade of Wednesday evenings surrounded by this dynamic and caring group as I serve at the Harriet Tubman Foot Clinic, a free foot clinic for our friends on the street.  The members of this community have been a tremendous influence on my work and my heart.  Their encouragement and support allowed me to take on the challenges of promoting an integrative approach at the foot clinic and also to dare to dream of a free mobile clinic we now call the Herb Bus.

There is a saying at the Open Door, “We’re gonna do the best we can until we can’t.”   These are simple words that make a profound point.  When we are facing what seems a difficult journey, when we don’t know how we can achieve the change that we know needs to happen, this phrase reminds us that we don’t have to have all the answers, we just have to do our best.  And while we are out there, giving what we can, we will be creating the community that is capable of even greater things.