One of the many things I was taught by the women in my life, thanks to God,
Is to not sell myself short, or give myself away easily,
To the ancestors that meant many things,
But lately to me it means,
Something else altogether,
I see so many of my sister-friends who are locked in these battles with other sister-friends,
And it makes them immobile,
The one sister does or says something that makes the other feel less,
While the one feeling less does not get that she is allowing the madness,
I had a friend talk to me, totally infuriated,
Because of how someone made her feel,
It was painful to hear,
And more painful to say,
“Stop it already, you have to know that you are as good as anyone, not better, not worse,
But God made you the same, so please, please, please don’t give your power away so easily… because if someone is trying to anger or intimidate you and it works, they have won whatever battle the two of you have engaged in and that was their goal…”
Later I was asked how did I become so confident,
And I explained that it was ingrained in me by my family,
But also I learned early on,
As the caramel colored girl with the long curly braids,
I had caught enough heck from others by the time I hit the first grade,
But thankfully that while I had been taught by my family that I was special,
I was also taught I wasn’t better,
That longer hair or nicer anything didn’t mean nothing,
And it saddens me to see women so trapped by the same nonsense,
Feeling that one who drives a nicer car or lives in a bigger house,
Or talks a bigger game has anything more than another,
Things change on a dime,
And so much of what we have is here today and can be gone tomorrow,
Balling on your job today,
Fired tomorrow,
Married to the man today,
Left alone tomorrow,
Long glossy hair today,
Chemotherapy bald tomorrow,
See what I mean,
The only things we should focus on is God’s grace,
And work fervently on having good hearts and treating folks accordingly…
Be BLESSED~
Angelia
http://www.angeliavmenchan.com/
