12.11.06
Good Karma
This is a nice reading, but short. Enjoy! All it takes is a few seconds
to read and think over.
SUGGESTIONS F O R L I F E
1. Take into account that great love and great achievements
involve great risk.
2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three R’s:
- Respect for self,
- Respect for others and
- Responsibility for all your actions.
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a
wonderful stroke of luck.
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great relationship.
7. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate
steps to correct it.
8. Spend some time alone every day.
9. Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and
think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.
12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for
your life.
13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the
current situation. Don’t bring up the past.
14. Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.
15. Be gentle with the earth.
16. Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.
17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your
love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order
to get it.
19. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.
12.08.06
The Strong Black Woman Has Died
By Kevin Willoughby
While struggling with the Reality of being a
Human instead of a myth, the Strong Black
Woman passed away.
Medical sources say she died of natural causes,
but those who knew her know she died from
being Silent when she should have been
Screaming, Smiling when she should
have been Raging, from being sick
and not wanting anyone to know
because Her Pain might
inconvenience them.
She Died from an overdose of other people
clinging to Her when she didn’t even have
Energy for Herself.
She Died from Loving Men who didn’t
Love themselves and could only
offer her a crippled reflection.
She Died from raising Children Alone.
She Died from the Lies her Grandmother
told her Mother and her Mother told
her about Life, Men & Racism.
She Died from being sexually abused as
a child and having to take that Truth
everywhere she went every day of
Her Life, exchanging the
humiliation for guilt
and back again.
She Died from asphyxiation, coughing up
blood from Secrets she kept trying to
burn away instead of allowing
Herself the kind of nervous
breakdown she was
entitled to.
She Died from being Responsible, because
She was the last rung on the ladder and
there was no one under her She
could dump on.
The Strong Black
Woman Is Dead.
She Died from being a Mother at 15
and a Grandmother at 30 and an
Ancestor at 45.
She Died from being dragged down and
sat upon by un-evolved Women posing
as Sisters and Friends.
She Died from tolerating Mr. Pitiful,
JUST to have a Man around
the house.
She Died from sacrificing Herself for
Everybody and Everything when
what She really wanted to do
was be a Singer, a Dancer,
or some Magnificent
other.
She Died from Lies of omission because
She didn’t want to bring the
Black Man down.
She Died from Tributes from her counterparts
who should have been matching Her Efforts
instead of showering her with dead words
and empty songs.
She Died from Myths that would not allow
Her to show Weakness without being
chastised by the Lazy and Hazy.
She Died from hiding her Real Feelings
until they became Hard and Bitter
enough to invade Her womb and
breasts like angry tumors.
She Died from always lifting something
from heavy boxes to refrigerators
All By Herself.
The Strong Black Woman Is Dead.
She Died from never being Enough of what
Men Wanted, or being Too much for the
Men She Wanted.
She Died from Being too Black and
Died again for not Being
Black enough.
She Died from being Misinformed about her
Mind, her Body & the extent of her
Royal capabilities.
She Died from knees pressed too close together
because Respect was never part of the
foreplay that was being shoved at Her.
She Died from Loneliness in Birthing rooms
and Aloneness in Abortion centers.
She Died in bathrooms with Her veins busting
open with Self-Hatred and Neglect.
And Sometimes when She Refused to die,
when She just Refused to give in, She
was Killed by the lethal images of
blonde hair, blue eyes, being
rejected by the O J’s the
Quincy’s, the Cuba’s,
& the Kobe’s.
Sometimes, She was stomped to Death by
Racism & Sexism, Executed by Hi-Tech
ignorance while She carried the
Family in her belly, the
Community on her
head, and the
Race on her
back!
The Strong Black Woman Is Dead!
Or Is She