With this month being Women's History Month, there are a lot of conversations being had about the plight and the power of women. Yet, there is one conversation that continues to be discussed in hushed tones, infertility. As very young girls, we have been taught that our worth is measured by our ability to marry and have babies, there are so many reasons why this narrative is damaging. As black women, we are the descendants of the women who had their choices made for them and their life paths mapped out before they could walk. ​

​It was April 2, 1990, I was 14 years old, dressed in a black outfit with my big hoop earring, key included, dangling from my ear. We got in the car; my brother had been drafted into being our driver for the night. As the car pulled out of the driveway and headed to Joe Louis Arena, the excitement had my heart racing with anticipation, I couldn’t believe this was happening. We stepped out of the car, slipped into the crowd, and began to walk up the infamous stairs that led into the arena. At the last step, my sister grabbed my hand, and we entered a world that I had never experienced. 

​​We are divine beings capable of creating with our words. Adopting an Affirmations practice has helped me recover and heal in so many ways, specifically when it comes to living with grief and an anxiety illness. If you are just beginning to explore using affirmations, figuring out how a collection of words can shift your life might be difficult to grasp. 

​When the COVID Virus began to plague the world, I knew that the experiences of the black population would be profoundly different, especially for black women.  We were informed about symptoms, statistical data, job loss, educational impact, and social distancing; but the grief of COVID wasn’t something the was emphasized enough. The reports that I watched had an underlying urgency, the masses wanting to know when life would return to normal.

​My grandma used to tell me that darkness makes the light brighter. As I have grown through life, the principles taught to me by my grandmother make so much sense. Like my beloved grandmother, I understand that I am an educator because I have endured hard times. I don’t think anything in life has taught me gratitude like grief. To have and lose in the blink of an eye is a phenomenon that continues to astonish me. My sister’s death broke me.