Happy Sunday

Wishing everyone a wonderful, restorative Sunday!

🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼

Beauty of Nature

The beauty of nature...

John Lewis 1940 - 2020

John Lewis was an amazing man. He gave so much while he was here. I have looked up to him and have been inspired by him my whole life. He dedicated his life to public service and sought justice for us all. I have always thought that he was the epitome of courage. 

In March 1965, he was beaten severely along with other marchers on Bloody Sunday and on many other occasions and yet he persevered. He endured a myriad of horrible experiences during sit-ins and was arrested over 40 times and was a Freedom Rider during the Civil Rights Movement. He always said that we must get into "good trouble" in order to right the wrongs and injustices that we come across.

He is a fellow Georgian, although he was born in Troy, Alabama. He served as the U.S. Representative for Georgia's 5th congressional district since 1987. I am honored that he was part of the Congressional Delegation from my home state. Through all that he endured, from all accounts of those who had the pleasure of meeting him, he was a genuine and kind man. He was a man of great conviction and was very vocal with his views on how to make America live up to itself. He was dedicated to securing our right to vote and championed voting up until the very end of his life. Now it is our turn to continue to work for equality in his name and we must continue to exercise our right to vote always. Too much blood was shed and too many people died for our right to vote and it is our duty to honor all that John Lewis and others did. We must vote!

We live in such turmoiled times and I sometimes wonder how we will ever get through it, but when I get discouraged, I often turn my thoughts to our ancestors…Dr Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks, and so many countless others and now this list will include Congressman John Lewis and Reverend C.T. Vivian (we lost both of them yesterday). I think of all that they endured on our behalf and I know that they are counting on us to keep going. They worked to change the world and as a Black woman, I know for sure that I owe them more thanks than I can ever articulate. 

One of the most immediate things that I can do to honor the work and life of John Lewis is to vote! Interestingly, just by chance, today I mailed in my absentee ballot for the run-off election in my home state and I will definitely be casting my vote for the general election in November. Mr John Lewis, Dr King, Rosa Parks, Reverend C.T. Vivian and so many others fought so hard for my right to vote and it is my job to use it every chance that I get.

Thank you, Congressman John Lewis, for being such an inspiration and for walking through this world with such honor and dignity while giving so much. Saying simply "thank you" doesn't seem adequate in the face of all that he and so many others did in our name, but words have power, even when they are simple words, so I simply say with the greatest respect...Thank you Mr John Robert Lewis. Thank you! 

Take your rest now sir and thank you again.

It's Okay to Not Be Okay

This has been a very up and down weekend for me…more down than up, but I’ll be okay eventually. There are a lot of things swirling around my head these days, but the main thing is that I miss my sister Mary.

I’ve debated back and forth with myself and wondered if I should just try to keep stuff like this off my blog and just work it through using my journal, but I feel the need to speak up here. I want to be transparent and not hide it. If nothing else, I want to show that it’s okay to not be okay. I find that denial is not helpful for me. This is real life. 

I will get through this grief, but I know that it has changed me. I have gone through grief before and I know from experience that it’s never a straight line. It just takes its own path. I know that I will get through this eventually, but right now I just wish that my sister were still in this world. It's been two and a half months, and even though I know that she passed away, sometimes I still can't wrap my mind around it. Sometimes I think that I'm processing my grief okay, but sometimes I feel like I'm just spinning my wheels. It's hard...incredibly hard. 

I will learn to live with it eventually, but I will miss her forever…

July 2020

Happy July! Happy new month!

May this new month and second half of 2020 bring many blessings, healing and better days to us all 🌸💕