Women lift up the Entire sky in twelve-month rotations
During one particular hen session with my new associates at Xavier University at the tender age of 17, I exuberantly said, " I am so glad I am a woman so I can have a baby!"
Somehow my mind turned to birth, babies, and motherhood. I reveled in being gloriously woman. Now that I have some life mileage on me, I would classify this season of my life as being a child/girl. Even then, I was fully cognizant that there were volumes of women worldwide due to life's circumstances, traditions, circumstances, and culture, who were rarely afforded the opportunity of ever being a girl/child.I personally could not walk fully into the title of woman yet due to my lack of maturity, life experiences, and wisdom. We were just in one of those philosophical 2 puffs and pass out the whimsical rhetoric for what and how we envisioned our lives as we transitioned into womanhood. In fact, I'd now say we were women in waiting, wielding facts and data for good grades, future pay grades, and stimulating conversation. And as for my motherhood goals, this institution of higher learning with all its books and scholars could not cause me to abandon my instinctual deeply rooted desire to duplicate my female self in love. I think now how odd it is to concern myself with this fact when I was at the peak of my life in a ready stance to learn, lasso, and take on the whole world.
I had no biological sisters and so my small circle of female friends became sisters and extended family. And to be honest I think I was scared to parent a male child. I grew up in the South in the 60s. Residing in Central Florida I knew from the high profile Arthur McDuffie incident and subsequent trial that a boy child melanated clothed in offensively black skin could possibly be on a very tedious journey in America where he may not come out of this "thing" alive. The "thing" is the Medusa and scourge of our society...racism!!
Well, at least these are the impressions and conclusions I garnered from the literary commentaries called novels and essays I gleaned from the likes of H. Rap Brown, Claude Mckay, Ralph Ellis, and James Baldwin. And so I opted for girls..please God. In due season He'd eventually granted me the desires of my heart.
But as I critique my 17-year-old person, I am proud to know that the drive to birth was always the center of my universe. Despite my gravitational pull for babies, my goal to be educated and fiscally acute was paramount. There was no other option. That was why I had my butt planted in this university. I would model my mother's example and most of her colleagues, friends, and sorority sisters. Get educated, work, build families, uplift your community and excel personally. My mom would stress to me that for a woman to have the respect of a man and to gain equity and equality, you must "bring something to the table". My mom was speaking relationally as it pertained to one's significant other. However, intuitively I knew this mindset needed to translate across the board relationally in order to deal with the good old boy systems of a network in this male-dominated world. And I knew in my gut that this was a gender-driven game with different rules that seemed skewed and bent to curry favor for the testosterone-laden players!
But birthing is a woman's epicenter..our one up, and our undeniable, indisputable
ace in the hole figuratively and literally.
In time I would discover all the various ways a woman could birth purpose that had nothing to do with physically replicating herself in the flesh!
During Black History Month 2022, I had a birthday and have now become threescore in age! Wow, that was fast and slow depending on which season of life I was in. In retrospect, I know without a shadow of a doubt the decade immediately following my 50th birthday catapulted into veinte times tres without the need of a referee's whistle! It gives me pause for the next decade and what it will bring. This pandemic year and threescore season feel like my Day 1 on planet earth. However, my latter self has more wisdom. She has an unfair advantage as opposed to my younger self who did not have a clue. My latter Val understands the gravity and brevity of life and knows fully that time is truly a master of all things.
More time is behind me than ahead of me. The earth is no longer slack and lackadaisical about getting her rotations around the sun on! More than ever, I move with a singular purpose and more urgency. Time is of the essence even as it was with Harriet Tubman's past, future, and present all intertwined. Tubman's choices would determine if all three-time schedules would survive or prematurely abort! And like Ms. Tubman, I have no time to grieve aborted assigned missions, dreams, and visions. I can't afford to second guess myself or be nebulous about my purpose. I am very strategic about who continues this journey with me because there is no falling off or turning around.
Women have always been fierce, traditional, and nontraditional. From Bessie Ross to Bessie Coleman to Truth and Tubman women have colored outside the lines that would isolate and separate them from "the thick of it!"
From Ruth Ginsburg Bader to Rosa Parks, Gloria Allred to Angela Davis they stood up or sat down as they chose. From Zora Neale Hurston, Josephine Baker, Nina Simone, and Judith Jamison they rise. To
Maya Angelou, Anne Frank, and Amanda Gorman...their voices and bodies would be seen, felt, and heard! The canvases of Frida Khalo filled with her own mutable images and Rhianna's music and beauty fortified herself a place amidst the stars! Vice President Kamala Harris, First Lady Michelle Obama, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, Supreme Court Justice nominee, Queen Elizabeth, Princess Diana, and Oprah have epitomized Becoming! And Coretta Scott King, Rita Marley, and Winnie Mandela used their existence to keep their husbands' dreams alive. Serena, Venus, and Osaka become a grand hit and Dr. Mae Jemison's trajectory exceeds the planet earth. Women are no longer hidden figures shadowing male counterparts.
I suspect we've always had more gump than that recorded. My own mother, like Tammy Senator Duckworth, knew how to soldier through socially. Both had had their legs of civility cut from under them continued to pull /place /push themselves and other people towards their purpose dreams and visions using education as a catalyst so they would not be left behind. Lady Godiva to Joan of Arc, Granny Nanny of the Maroons to Queen Nandi(Shaka Zulu's Mother); Women have been Alpha for a minute!!
Some have birthed offspring and others have helped children come forth with their gifts. Women are midwives who encourage passion and pull out purpose in others. Women are Sheroes. She is the multitasker who births greatness through herself and by way of her gifts. She is grit and gentleness, complex and simplistic, erudite and enigmatic. She is long abiding and enduring. She is the one who lifts the sky and dares to bare and break the waters. She is the one who grabs hands with those she nurtures, loves, and is attached to. And with a single leap, she teaches them by precept and example to unabashedly jump at the sun!
Time has passed. I am fully woman and bequeathed a Mother of the Church title, affectionately called Momma D, Momma Val, or Momma Davis in my community. I've borne two girls and become a surrogate mother to many. I never realized at 17 that my pull to foster and cultivate within my womanhood was not so much physically driven but it was a prophetic call to become a conduit to birth dreams, teach and inspire others to come forth in the fullness of their lives, and to boldly walk in their purpose. Women have substance, sustainability, and sensibility. I along with you and others are beautiful and bold. She/Her/We are Heroine, Hear Us Roar!