I was inspired by a Magpie!!

My friend, Sheila, just restarted her fabulous, inspiring blog, the quintessential magpie, and I was so inspired by her love of books and poetry that I felt compelled to share one of my favorite poems. I feel like I can hear his Mother speaking directly to me. I was raised by a wonderful black woman, Alvenia White, and I cannot express how much I loved her. She was essentially my Mother until I was eleven years old. I will never forget how I cried when I was going to have leave her and go to kindergarten. I was so miserable that after two days they let me come home and stay with her. Back then, you know kindergarten was optional. I could cry just thinking about the love and comfort that she gave me. She taught me everything that I ever needed to know like how to be joyful, fun loving, and respectful. You did not disobey nor did you really want to because you did not want to risk her displeasure because life was so fun when she was around. I can remember as a child struggling over the fact that I loved her more than my actual mother. It was only as an adult that I realized what a gift it was to have a white Mother and a black Mother. I am truly blessed and now that I am a mother, I say and teach my children things that flow from the well springs of both of these ladies. They are both so intertwined in my life that I cannot really differentiate between the two. To close, God is and was so great to have given me such a life.


A Mother to Son By Langston Hughes

Well, son, I'll tell you:Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.It's had tacks in it,And splinters,And boards torn up,And places with no carpet on the floor --Bare.But all the timeI'se been a-climbin' on,And reachin' landin's,And turnin' corners,And sometimes goin' in the darkWhere there ain't been no light.So boy, don't you turn back.Don't you set down on the steps'Cause you finds it's kinder hard.Don't you fall now --For I'se still goin', honey,I'se still climbin',And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.