This is a product of connecting my upbringing, the prayers of my grandmother & the events that happened in the days following independence day weekend July 5 - July 9.
Importance of this piece..
Our grandmothers often represent a generation who really know the ups and downs of life, like REALLY know the ups and downs. They are women who have seen some of the most touching and devastating events which have shaped history and OUR history. For me the presence of a grandmother represents strength, love, nuturing and wisdom; she is the reason behind many family traditions, recipes and an example of success. She loves God and she breaks down the bigger complexities of life for your young mind to understand and value, many times her hustle makes your future possible. This piece centers around the role of grandmothers and the worth of their words, in this case the words within a grandmother's prayers over the years are fully understood for the first time. The basis on which these words are understood lie within heartbreaking events in our world where black men and women are losing their lives in an unjust manner. When looking deeper I realize that this wasn't only a prayer that I benefited from but many others have testified that their grandmothers prayed similar prayers which have kept them til today constantly striving to be the best men and women they can be in today's society and beyond. A grandmother's prayers AND her words must never be taken lightly, they hold a power that we cannot fully comprehend in our lifetimes.
Family is defined by its members, how they relate and what they mean to each other. It consists of several kinds of relationships, the highlight of this piece revolves around grandmothers and the various relationships that stem from their being.. their presence in a family. Grandmothers often hold family together when situations or circumstances can tear it apart.
Holding onto the possibility that grandmothers keep family together, they pray and intercede for everybody. It may be the meekness of a grandmother's heart that causes constant protection from above, where He hears the plea of grandmothers and honors the call. We've got to do things for ourselves and stop placing our walk with God in the hands of our grandmothers, learn from your grandmother. Hunger for the lessons and wisdom that your grandmother has and greater. One day generations will also require you to do what your grandmothers have done for you. Are you equipped enough? Have you hungered for the presence of the Lord as much? Does God know the sound of your voice or the constant moans of needy prayers when you remember 'Oh there's somebody by the name of Jesus', "Please please rescue me Lord". You have to desire a walk with God that shakes the kingdom of the enemy, let him pee himself every single morning when you get out of bed; make the enemy run every time you enter into a place he thought he had control over.
We need to hunger for this level of relating with God and the ability to hold people together when they are almost shattering, but if we can't be bothered to learn.. how can we fight and who are we fighting for? When you equip yourself you are able to help others, when you build the strength that you need you can fight for others. From today forth know that you are fighting for your own cause, a cause which directly impacts those that surround you, those living in your generation and those of generations unborn. You are fighting to sustain life where situations only present death, you are presenting a voice people didn't know could arise and represent them. You are also fighting for those who don't even see the need to fight, who don't get the purpose of the fight and those who will break down the structures that are in place to protect them, with their own hands. The fight might feel like it is fought in vain but your impact will transcend time periods after you have gone and left your legacy, your actions replace the regret of 'I wish I had done..' with 'I did it and I was alive to..'. Your fight brings light to the wrongdoing, the injustice, the silencing and the desensitizing of people's reactions to such disgusting acts that shouldn't even be found in the nature of mankind.
We are forgetting that our interactions daily despite what our journeys have led us to experience should be on an individual to individual basis. You are responsible for how you decide to treat those whose paths cross at a point with yours, you have a duty as a human being to hold your innermost convictions in one hand and have your "benefit of the doubt" fairy dust in the other hand ready to sprinkle into action before anything else. We are forgetting that we are all human beings birthed of our mothers who once held us with the utmost disbelief that their baby was alive and well, that they made it to the other side of child birth to carry their child in their hands. We also forget the families broken by loss, we forget that your blood and my blood are the same color even if our shells are not, we forget that before any authority or title you are first a human being and those things are mere additions to your status as fellow homosapien. We are losing out on collaborating with each other in our communities, in our jobs, our colleges, in the corporate world and in life over matters that we have no control over. This focus on irrelevant details is distracting us from the main aims and missions that we are supposed to reach and complete in life. You lose out on educating your world on the coming advancements and what you have to offer your world. You instead repeat history by having to deliver old classes to a new generation when those classes should be part of stories told to show how far we have come. Not how many centuries we have leaped back to. Wake up. Yes people will do wrong things but don't classify the whole people under that regressive label; try and understand the damage it causes.
Ways to move forward and ways to cope with such events in life ?
1. If you still have your grandmother around, talk with her. Question her and if you're too sure how to ask just say "Gramy, Pebble$ sent me." 😊
2. Look for ways to educate yourself daily, biweekly whatever time to can give, give it. Keep up with developments BUT know when to step away because the events of 2016 had us all feeling like we needed counselling.
3. Advocate for your peace when it all feels like a little too heavy to carry, and you'll be able to support others as they support you.
4. Always have somebody you can talk to or people you can talk to.
5. Pray. Prayer is not the whole solution but IT IS part of it, meditate. Meditate to shut out the noise of the world and communicate
with God in your secret place.
6. If you have known the effects of spewed hate, you better be the last person sending it out towards others.
7. It's alright not to have all the answers, but your hunger for some answers is sometimes all it takes.
Know that your life is worth every breath you take and the inhale/exhale of your lung gives rhythm to hearts that needed breath when they said breath had died and gone. May you be the new start that arises with our coming lunar :)
I want to publish a book, it will be a collective of my work from the start of my journey at 8 years old til Summer 2015. Hold me to it !
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Peace & Love !