Celebrating Our Differences
You know how it begins: someone says something that triggers you; you hear a certain inflection in the tone of someone’s voice; a car speeds up to prevent you from changing lanes so you can turn; someone’s child is throwing a tantrum and handling it differently than you’d…
I find writing prompts and assignments to be rather easy most of the time, which is why the assignment to write about ‘joy’ surprised me; I couldn’t think of a single thing. No, I’m not a dark person, nor am I melodramatic, or anything of the sort. I…
Not knowing her future forces us to live and find Joy in the present. My mother’s name is Sarah and she will be 93 in January. Her majestic face is strengthened by high, chiseled cheekbones and deeply set eyes that bestow upon her an enviable, timeless beauty. My…
A Snapshot from my Journal, Saturday, July 18, 2009 In search of other critical voices to support my essay on Chinua Achebe’s poem, Refugee Mother and Her Child, I journeyed to the Emory University Woodruff Library in Atlanta, Georgia. After browsing their database and recording some prospective resources,…
My mind is thinking of what colors I should paint the room, imagining how she will look, and anxious for her to finally come into the world. My daughter Riley Blake has now made her entrance and the joy I feel is beyond anything I have ever felt. Bringing…
Every Wednesday afternoon, I drive to Room in the Inn, the homeless ministry in Florence. On my drive to the center, I am usually filled with self-doubt. I am socially awkward, and I always try to get there early enough to nab the snacks and supplies duty so…
I am a Starfish Minister. I bestowed this label upon myself in conversation with a philosopher who was describing her “purpose in life” as a “systems changer”. When she finished the description, she then inquired about how I see myself as contributing to the evolution of humanity. It…
“Your ability to stand up for your truth is a muscle, and the more you exercise it the stronger it gets” Dan Pallota Our world is a sphere of shifting moral and ethical values -the clear-cut delineation of black and white, has morphed into more than fifty shades…
When asked to write an article about something I “Stand” for, it took me a good bit of time to finally settle on something. I know I have stood for many things throughout my 48 years, but one that has touched me personally and that I have fought…
I grew up in the presence of women—mother, three sisters, aunts, cousins, neighbors, and friends. My grandmothers’ presence was felt in their admonitions and advice sent in letters from rural Arkansas or when we visited during the summers. While the women talked, their hands were productive: shelling peas…