There are soooooooo many private trials and tribulations I can write about the last eight years. 9/11, the passing of my beloved mother, the struggles of establishing my business, my weight gain and a HOST of other most private things.
But anyone who knows me knows that I am not one to wallow in self pity or regrets or failure. When all have given up on me or sat on the sidelines waiting for me to kill myself, go completely nutz or just plain ole give in-they forgot-I am a Taurus Woman. Stubborn to the core. Failure is NEVER an option and I am far too young to lay down and die.
What I WILL write about is blind faith. That kind of faith that when even the closest to you want to tell you to just give up and settle you remember whom you really serve! I am far from a religious person. Many folks have been hurt by "religion" but FAITH will carry you when you don't even see how.
From the womb I have had to fight. Fight to live. To be. My mother had really bad toxemia with me and my birth had to be stalled for an extra month. So I am a ten month baby. She used to joke that during her final labor she was like Bob Barker; "Pleaseeeeeee come on down"-yet I would scoot back up inside of her when the doctors touched me. I was breeched and the doctor turned me and yet, I would not make my appearance into this world until I WAS READY.lol
My infant pictures have the the forceps imprints on my face until I was almost six months. and I was always taller than my peers. When I was nine months the doctors said my intestines were twisted and EIGHT doctors told my mother that I would need surgery. It was one nurse from my mothers hometown who told her that God said,"Don't let those doctors cut your baby."
I grew up loving rock and roll and being "different" from what folks believed I should be. I can remember when my childhood friend got into a horrendous car accident that rendered her paralyzed and mentally incapacitated. When they wheeled her to school, I was the only one who ran up to her and cried when she couldn't speak to me. I can still see her dribbling saltine crackers that I fed her because I knew she liked saltines as much as I did. I can remember my grandmother and mother trying to explain to me why my friend was like she was. I also remember the day she passed. I often think about her.
It is that determination and love of people that I have carried within me to this day. I am not the easiest person to get along with because I don't accept "can't". Either you tried and failed or you tried and became victorious with God's help.
It is that determination that led me to Reading, Pa to stump for Barack Obama. Far away from my comfort zone and all reasonable explanation to my friends and family. Just up jumped and boogied to a place I knew NOTHING of. Where I met some incredible people. some I am still in contact with and some I know I will never see or speak to again-but yet bonded at that time and moment.
Barack won. Yay. Yippee. Now the real work has to begin. Within US. ESPECIALLY us black folk. The excuses are OVER. The true legacy of Barack's presidency is how we as a people take up his mantle and run with it.
Demand that respect from others-yes-BUT demand that respect within our own selves FIRST. The time for selfishness has got to be over in our community.
