An 18-year-old African American high school senior became a heroine of mine in July 1996. Her name is Keshia Thomas. Keshia was part of a crowd of 300 people assembled to protest a Ku Klux Klan rally in Ann Arbor, Michigan. A man who looked like a white supremacist was spotted in the protesters’ midst and there was suddenly an angry mob surrounding him. The crowd started beating him, knocking him to the pavement, and Keshia, who had been one of the people who was going to verbally confront him, threw herself on top of the man to protect him from the attack. The picture in the July 8th People magazine of this young woman grimacing, using her body to protect the bald-headed, tattooed man as he lay on the ground, is etched in my memory, as is Keshia’s explanation of what she did. Keshia’s was a decidedly woman’s act of courage. She was there in the first place to stand against violence and oppression. And when she actually witnessed them, it was the feminine voice which arose, fearless, strong, powerful, in protection of all life. “You don’t beat a man up because he doesn’t believe the same things you do. He’s still somebody’s child,” she said. Then she laughingly told the People reporter that “this will all be over in a New York minute. People don’t have to remember my name. I just want them to remember that I did the right thing.” I remember both, Keshia, and you give me the courage to be a woman fighting for what I believe in.
I am a woman HEALING MYSELF
The word heal comes from the Anglo-Saxon haelan which means to be or to become whole. To be a woman healing myself is to be a woman becoming whole; giving myself the time and the space I need for the journey. No one grows up without wounds– Continue reading “I am a woman HEALING MYSELF”
I am a woman LOVING MYSELF
LOVING MYSELF
How many times and for how many years I have looked into the eyes of another – friends, lovers, even strangers – asking “will you love me?” Yet no one can give me what I have not given myself. I cannot replace self-love with the love of others because unless I love myself, I can’t take in the gift. That’s the paradox. I want to be loved to feel lovable, but Continue reading “I am a woman LOVING MYSELF”
I am a woman RECLAIMING MY BODY
My body, at last, I claim you! I live here! I am not some disincarnate spirit using just any vehicle to get around. I live in the full, round, soft, juicy, wet, strong, agile, capable, Spirit-filled, nurturing, graceful, flowing, comforting, lovely, smooth, dancing, singing, playing, working, praying body of a woman!
For so many years I rejected my body; judged it because it isn’t perfect according to the standards of my culture. I have been unfaithful to it, letting other’s opinions turn me against it; allowing others to use it Continue reading “I am a woman RECLAIMING MY BODY”