Stories of Black Women
You can learn to take your emotional temperature and deal with your emotions. I regret every action I took when uncontrollable emotions enslaved me. Last week, someone standing behind me in a supermarket said something awful to me and I stood there, powerless and hurt. I wanted to smack this stranger who watched me with …
On how to have deep conversations – not just exchange pleasantries. Put yourself in a moment where you were not fine. Maybe you were terrible, and maybe you were too good to be true. And you said, “I’m fine. Thank you.” Put yourself back in that moment when you lied. Why did you do it? …
Your heart is the only place your gift resides. The only place. She could easily have settled into a life of ease at her family’s country mansion. Instead, she chose a path of arduous commitment to caring for others. She could have lived a rich life (in the material sense) doing nothing. She could have …
Cultivate a habit of impatience about things you most want to do. A friend is diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer last week. The rogue cells in her body have become enemies that are eating her body away. She is 33 years old. When a dear friend is fighting for her life, you’re reminded of …
Lessons from my student who died at 53 with only 10 people attending his funeral. My student hustled, sweated, and drove himself straight into the grave. A complication of hypertension he had for years took his life while he was sleeping. Only 10 people attended his funeral. 10 people who got the hell out of …
5. If a doctor gave you one year to live, what would you try to accomplish? Nothing like a dark year to teach you what’s important in life. Asking yourself important questions can guide you. It can help you decide on what the person in the mirror really wants in life. You can use these …
You can’t run from what can’t be outrun. In my 20s, life’s nasty bits poured a bucket of ice water on my head when a guy I dated for 3 years cheated on me. I could not bear to accept what happened. I removed myself from life. Instead of admitting someone I loved had shattered …
Even in the middle of a great struggle, there are things to be thankful for. “Wear gratitude like a cloak and it will feed every corner of your life.” -Rumi Counting your blessings with clear intention might make you feel better in these troubled times. While I would love to grow old with my best …
The least you can do for yourself is everything. Innocence and perfection were the diamonds that symbolized her. She was a little girl who loved herself through all her imperfections. In what she considered the metaphor of life, she was too busy devouring life to be bothered by things like mistakes and failures that stood …
They are hollow. Platitudes are words that are used not for connection, but for distancing – to make the person uttering them feel safer. My best friend is in the midst of a crisis right now. She just had a miscarriage. These days, she sinks into sadness too deep for words. She may appear …