Passionately Managing Life

​ “The love and respect I have for Encanto and the story it tells. It brings so much to the forefront. I can understand the thought process behind wanting to “control” the family narrative in an attempt to protect them from harm especially when you have experienced traumatic events that have shaped your perspective and altered life as you know it. This movie hit me so hard 😭 ”  a Facebook post by me What I love about Encanto is the real-life depiction of a strong matriarch and the invisible pressure put on her shoulders to ensure that the family is surviving. What happens when you’re a strong woman with a family is that you make it so the family doesn’t realize what they need or what is lacking because she covers it all. She acts as the backbone and foresees what has to be taken care of in the future. All issues are handled because that strong woman makes it so. It’s hard for her to show vulnerability because she is a woman in charge. It’s hard to be flexible or accept medioc...

​ Mercury? Today was hard hard and there wasn’t a particular instance that made it harder than a normal day but from the time I woke up it was a hard day. It was hard at work, it was hard at home, it was hard to focus. Miscommunication was at an all-time high. There were physical altercations, negative student interactions, negative peer interactions and negative family interactions. Overall stress just beat me down today. I’m tired physically, mentally, and emotionally drained. I honestly want to just get in bed. I had to write it all out of my brain so I won’t carry it with me back home.     I am not sad or upset I just feel depleted. So I am going home to rest right now.

​ Strength is a poem I wrote 15 years ago enjoy! I am a Black woman. When you see me you see the pains of a nation; Struggles of a people; The trials and tribulations of the past; The many battles fought to gain freedom. On my brow lies the sweat of revolutions; The deaths for the causes. I am the backbone of a civilization; A vision of beauty; An equal in a world of manmade rules. I am the picture of strength. Head held high; Back tall and straight; Feet ready to work; There is nothing too hard for me to bear. When I am near, You feel my comfort; Deep-down you feel my pain. Here for 20 years, 30 years; A hundred years; Here for a thousand years. Never-ending woman. Strong Black woman; Powerful woman. Woman. I woman. I am woman.

I write to your show in hopes of you being able to help show appreciation for my sister Deanna Lee Edwards. She is truly the strongest woman I know. Yes she is strong in all the traditional ways in which an African American woman can be strong, but her story is one of those others need to hear to be encouraged. In the spring of 2008 my then 21 year old sister learned that she was pregnant with her first child. She was scared, yet excited to take this next venture in life. At that time she was a full time college student in her junior year at Moore College of Art & Design in Philadelphia. She worked two jobs to help support herself through college. Always the optimist she was overjoyed with the new challenges motherhood would bring. Our family rallied around her in anticipation for the arrival of my nephew. In the early morning hours of September 8, 2008 everything changed. She woke in the middle of the night with a severe headache. Due to her pregnancy there were limitations to the...