Family pictures

Full of history, expectations, agreements, obligations

Originally free and mighty

Great

Omniscient love always and forever

Magnificence stolen, traded, given away

Hope and aspiration forgotten

Bogged down by the anchor of

Years of slavery, poverty, lack and limitation

Imbedded in our consciousness although we are abundant

Keeping us from freedom

While freedom stands right before us

Awaiting our recognition

Mama felt like her mama felt like her mama felt

Suffering is the burden, the punishment

Of being human, of being woman

No need to discuss it

No need to communicate at all

Just bear it

Suppress all feelings

Deny any unhappiness

I am happy in my unhappiness for God

Greater will be the grace of God

More golden will be the streets of heaven

The light of the Lord will shine brighter

The more you suffer

I reject this!!

            You cannot reject yourself.

I resent you!!

            You cannot resent yourself.

I hate you!!

            You cannot hate yourself.

Family

We are one

Bound together, lifted together, falling together

By agreement

How can one move forward without a leg?

Breathe without a lung?

Love without a heart?

To break away is to wither like a leaf without its tree

To evaporate like a drop of water without its ocean

I ask

Can I not be separate

And

One with you?

The body and the spirit merge

There is no family

No birth

No death

No ties that bind

No heaven or hell

Past, present, and future are now

And now I am free

Free with no need of or desire for a heart

A lung, a leg

An ocean or a tree

History, life, expectations

Meld into one screen of existence

From which I am inspired

I feel and express love

I touch and am touched

I expand into more

And emotionally

I let go