Tracey Primavera: Vulnerability can change the world

She’s the smiling lady who sat on the Post office steps in the evening sharing her vision for the planet. Tracey Primavera had a mission of bringing peace to the world – one rainbow peace flag at a time. For a decade, until 2014, thousands of people agreed to join her, hanging them from flagpoles, decks, boats and storefronts throughout the town, the country and the world.As a massage therapist she created a supportive healing practice, while caring for her 84 year-old father who she moved from New York City to Orleans a decade ago. Life was good.In 2015, however, things went awry. A perfect storm of serious health issues, loss of her home of fourteen years and her father’s deteriorating health left her, suddenly, homeless. The healer needed healing, but felt ashamed and vulnerable when she reluctantly walked into the office of Helping Our Women and remarked, “Other women are more deserving of help than me.” She was terrified to ask for help because she would seem weak, but was told that she deserved to be cared for. And the community responded with such generosity that her father remarked, “No one does this!”“The capacity of HOW and its safe space for bearing witness to another is breathtaking beyond measure,” she states from one of her many speeches she gives sharing her journey from independence to interdependence. “Vulnerability can change the world,” she proclaims.Along with HOW’s social service advocacy and financial and emotional support, including Cape Air tickets to Boston hospital appointments, Tracey also lived for free in three different homes while homeless. And she was given a jeep – her dream car, received gifts cards and lots of hugs, and finally, was selected for an affordable housing unit at Sable Path for her and her father.Helping Our Women, along with the AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod, are major beneficiaries of the Swim for Life, set for September 9 this year. Other beneficiaries include: Outer Cape Health Services, Soup Kitchen of Provincetown, Provincetown Rescue Squad, Lower Cape Ambulance, Accessible Provincetown, The Compact Community Fund, Provincetown Schools, West End Racing Club and Cape Cod Children’s PlaceFor information and ways to participate, go to www.Swim4Life.org.