My mother had no tolerance for my crying.
“If anyone looks at Anjuelle, she cries,” was how she described me.
She wanted to instill in me a mental toughness–what she had.
I was not going for it.
And so I cried.
I took
Mental Toughness, Girl Scout Badges, and Du’as … Read More »
In that a memoir, and the structure of any narrative, consists of scenes, I must write various scenes of my life, those that most depict my suffering for which I offer forgiveness and hold compassion for my mother.
This is hard. Not simply because I am writing of my mother, and about myself. The challenge lies in my lack of certainty, the ambiguity of my mother’s actions, and thus my ambivalence.
Perhaps what
Of Narrative, Scenes of a Life, and Brimming With Fear … Read More »
Historically women and mothers have been and encouraged their daughters to live guarded lives. By guarded lives I mean not allowing love to determine the best husband, showing care with whom we associated, not allowing ourselves to find ourselves alone with men to whom we were not betrothed or married.
My mother exhibited similar actions with me. And I confess to doing the same with out daughters. These actions, though
Of History, Bloodlines and Memory … Read More »
One of the most exciting things about being a daughter is that I received the charge to carry forth the lineage of both my mother and my father. Not only have they achieved immortality in that they live on in my memory, but I, in being a woman held the capability of giving birth. And with this I have delivered three children, all girls, into this world.
Much is said about men and carrying on the name of a family. A name is but a name. We can change
Of Daughters, Bloodlines and The Survival of Humanity … Read More »
~~Anjuelle Floyd~~ … stories about women … … making things right with family and friends … … resolving difficulties with intimates and significant others … … by bridging the divide, and mending wounds with their mothers …
Assisting our eight grader with her American History lessons has called me to revisit the United States’ Declaration of the Independence, of which the second paragraph states, “ … We hold these truths self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. …”
However well-meaning these men were in seeking freedom and independence from Great Britain, Parliament and King George III, their clarity and self-reflection on the truth of their words leaves much confusion in light of our nation’s history.
Besides being totally opposed to freedom for women and peoples of color, never mind the Native Americans from whom they usurped the land we now call the United States of America, these men, our founding fathers crafted this document, the basis for our government with a certain
Of History Lessons, The Pursuit of Happiness and Choice … Read More »
A recent study conducted at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois concludes, “ … most girls as young as six years old are already beginning to think of themselves as sex objects.”
The voluminous hours of watching television has taken its toll on girls of all ages and has reached the youngest of females.
But our daughters are not the only ones affected.
Researchers offered more information concerning factors influencing
Of Mothers, Daughters and Marilyn Monroe … Read More »