What can I teach you about being Black?
Not much,
Because I'm not.
But a I can teach you about pain,
And how to forgive peoples foolish words.
I can show you how to endure suffering,
So that through it Truth will be proclaimed.
I can love you and cry with you,
I can be the she-bear when you are threatened.
We can live where there is a rainbow of people,
and we can learn to love them together.
We can seek out the truth of history,
And not be afraid of the ugliness.
I can open your heart and your eyes
To the painful reality that comes
clinging to the back of sin.
And in the end,
I can release you into your destiny,
And wait for you to come home,
With a fuller understanding of who you are
and what you are to be in your life.
Then I can listen as you teach me,
What it means to be Black.
(Note: I posted this 11/07 but most of you were not around back then to share it with. :)
31 comments:
This is beautifully and thoughtfully written ... thank you for sharing.
Just when I thought I found my favorite blog entry (yours from yesterday), now you add this one. I love this. I love this. I love this. Thanks!
I just had to quote it on my log..hope you don't mind..
Love, Julie
Link away friends - our goal is to encourage and educate!
d :)
This is an absolutely amazing poem.
I was looking for a 'poetry' tab so I could read more of yours. If you have a collection, would you share?
Hi,
I just found your blog through a mention of your laundry system over on simplemom. I am so delighted to have discovered your blog and I look forward to reading more. This poem is wonderful. I am the Mama to four children through international adoption so it spoke volumes to me.
With Joy!
Rebecca
www.ourhappysong.blogspot.com
www.weavingfamilies.com/blog
Hi, I was given this specific link by a blogland friend of mine. I am so grateful that she thought of me when she came across your blog. Your journey looks amazing, and I plan on coming back for me. I am encouraged to have found someone who wants to use her good and her blog to encourage and educate. I know that I am a first time visitor, but I already feel as if I can thank you for being you.
Hi, I was given this specific link to this poem by a blogland friend of mine. I am grateful that she thought of me as she came across your blog. I am excited to have found someone who wants to use their good and their blog to encourage and educate. I know I am only a first time visitor, but I already feel like I should thank you. I'll definitely be back to read more....future posts as well as old ones. Your family picture is beautiful.
I honestly don't remember how I found your blog, but this post moved me to tears. I am a newly wed pastor's wife who has always wanted to adopt from within the US, and will be waiting anxiously for your updates!
Can I share this poem on my blog? I did a recent post on transracial adoption and how I can help my kids through their journey. This poem spoke volumes to me and I would love to share it!
Your family is beautiful and I cannot believe that you have a picture of all 10 kids looking the same direction and smiling! That's a miracle in itself!
I look forward to watching your blog! Let me know if that's okay to share the poem and your blog!
Go for it Molly! My goal is to share and encourage others through the little pieces of this journey that are mine.
First time reader here, found you by way of other bloggers due to this post. Thank you so much for sharing this powerful poem. It really speaks to me as the White mother of three young children of color! I posted and linked to you on my blog.
Beautiful.
wonderful words. love it.
thank you for sharing.
melissa
Just found this through Owlhaven - so powerful! Thank you for sharing - again!
Thank you so much for this. I hope you don't mind, but I had to repost it on our blog.
I am currently deep into an Education and Diversity class in my Masters program and we are answering questions similar to this, "What can I teach you about being black?" One major theme of this class is that we must learn from our students; they must teach us for we have so much to learn from them. You have described this phenomenon so beautifully and so truthfully with your words! I am thoroughly enjoying reading your blogs during my spare moments, thank-you!
i'm glad you linked back to this! i've been following for awhile but hadn't read this. JUST beautiful. PERFECT. you've definitely been gifted with words and insight!
I am just reading this for the first time, and I'm sure I will be reading it again. my husband and I are in the process of bringing children home from Rwanda and I'm realizing that dealing with the quiet skepticism of some of our family members about racial issues is going to be a long journey. thank you for being a way paver...=)
Wow, that was beautiful! May I post this on my blog?
Sure go ahead and post. :) d
This is AMAZING! Thank you so much for taking the time to so eloquently pen these thoughts.I'm a momma of a little boy who dosen't look just like me and these are some of the exact things that I want my son to know and understand.
Wow, so wonderfully said I had tears in my eyes as I read this as you so eloquently expressed the feelings I share as a Mom who has recently adopted a child of color. May I post it on my blog ( I will of course give credit to your blog.) Thank you for being such an inspiration.
Danielle
Oh, how I love this.
Do you know this blog? I think you can relate!
http://hoodmamamel.blogspot.com/
This is beautiful. I may commit parts to memory and recall them as I need them. My family of 3 is in the process of becoming a family of 4 through international adoption and understanding what it's like to live in a country where were are judged immediatly on our skin color has been a worry of mine as we step into transratial adoption with our eyes wide open. (how's that for a long, run-on sentence?)
Thanks for these beautiful words
Melissa
http://thelemanskis.blogspot.com
I found your blog through "The Happy Neills" and wow that is an incredible poem. Thanks for sharing!
This poem gives me "direction" on how to be a mom to our new son from Ethiopia. Thanks for sharing!
Wow! I love this! This has been my question since we adopted our son; how can I teach him about being Black? This is such a beautiful poem that says it perfectly! May I post the poem on my blog? I write about being a Christian adoptive mom.
Feel free to share it on your blog - link back to the source please.
Thank you! I posted it with a link to your site.
Beautiful.
I think along these same lines...I hope to teach that when they (we) are persecuted unjustly, we are that much closer to becoming like Christ, who withstood the most unjust persecution of all and used it for the most spectacular glory.
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