The Making of ME!

Today, I am all that I have been becoming for the past 60+ years. 

If I am overweight, I have been becoming overweight for 60+ years.
If I am spiritual, I have been becoming spiritual for 60+ years.
If I am a servant, I have been becoming a servant for 60+ years.
If I am a writer, I have been becoming a writer for 60+ years.
If I live in the ghetto, I have been preparing to live there for 60+ years.
No matter where I am today, I have been preparing to be here for 60+ years.

All that I am, I have been becoming for 60+ years.  I did not suddenly wake up this morning and become me.  I have practiced for 60+ years to become the person that I am.  Some of it, was practiced intentionally. 

Some was imposed by society. And, still some came from my environment.  Through it all, I had to pick and choose.  Many choices were forced upon me.  For example, living in America as a Black female.  I had no say in that.  Another example of no choice was being born in Screven, Georgia where the only two choices of being independent meant being a preacher or a school teacher.  Most everyone else worked for "the man doing whatever jobs were available.

Through my 60+ years of becoming, one lesson has always remained true and clear.  Without education (book knowledge, apprenticeships, OJT, etc.) there was no  way out of any situation.  My Mother's motto always was get an education so that you can do better than I have done.  If you do not do any better than I have, then you did not learn enough.  Her example was clear.  She got an education and started the first kindergarten ever for Black children in Screven, Georgia.  She was "The Help" in many White kitchens and homes.  She worked in cotton,  tobacco, peanuts, sugar cane, beans, and peas, but she also made it to church on Sunday, school at night, and to the hospitals and homes to visit the sick and shut in.

My Mother taught me endurance, perseverance, integrity, honesty, and the pride one needs to take in one's self no matter where they may land in life.  She had 48 years to mold me into the person I have become, and today, her influence is not only influencing me, but many others whose lives she touched.

Realizing this made me think a lot about who I am, who I think I am, and who I want to become over the next 60+ years.  LOL, I realize that the answer was very simple.  I am my Mother’s child.  I think I am a good person that is well grounded in spirituality.  I want to become the kind of person my Mother was during her seventy-six years on this earth.  Although my Mother was not a saint, she is, was, and will always be the kind of person in my mind that qualifies for sainthood.  With all of her imperfections, she remained true to her faith, her destiny, and her true belief in the human race.  My Mother, Mrs. Florence Henrietta Brown Williams, made these 60+ years look like a training ground that made me appreciate and understand that lifelong learning is just that “a life of learning!”  Thank you lady.  I am loving you now more than ever before.