Black Woman's Struggle!

BLACK WOMAN’S STRUGGLE ,

an excerpt from second e-book in Meme Kelly's inspirational e-Book series.

Special Note from Meme

       The title of this piece is deceiving because it's actually about loving a Black man.  But because I believe before a woman can love a man, she must love herself, the piece ends with all the things I love about Black women. 

Excerpt from SHOUT!  Lessons of Hope for Tough Times

     In fact, I’ve been in a state of gratefulness about loving and living with four Black men for years. When I drop off my youngest son at college, I say to him, “I am the luckiest woman in the world to get to love and be loved by four Black men.” He kisses me good bye as he whispers, “Yes you are.” To me loving our men and children is my most important task as a Black woman. Raising our children peacefully with love and gently guiding them is the most important task of a Black woman if she’s lucky enough to be a mother.

     We Black Women are so adept at seeing the good in the bad, gliding through life’s ups and down, so gracefully. We are the Harriet Tubmans who endured slavery and led our people north, and the sweet Rosa Parks who refused to sit on the back of the bus. We are versatility: From mothers, to corporate sisters and CEOs to scientist, teachers and pastors.

     My big mama was soft-spoken and gentle, yet very strong. I understand that the struggles we go through -- being single moms, working our butts off, balancing families and work, living and providing for our loved ones on a shoe-string budget – can sometimes make us tough as nails. I understand the strength that we need to survive our daily struggles and how hard it is to keep our frustrations bottled up inside. So sometimes it shows on the outside and we’re seen as mean and tough when really we’re strong and focused.

     But in the stillness of the night, during our prayer time, we can transform ourselves. We can ask God to lift our burdens and soften our touch and words, so that we can float through life as loving, sweet, soft angels, strong as nails on the inside, manifesting as the sweet women of God that we are on the outside.