Heroines in my Backyard: Girl, get up!
When life knocks me down or I need inspiration or guidance, I go through the pages of the sacred text( Bible) to find inspiration. I stop by the woman with bruised heel who, despite her deformed feet, crushed the serpent head, a prophecy, and inspiration that broken crayon still color. Other times, I gleaned from the story of the orphan girl who emerged as a Queen despite her context (situation) in a contest(beauty pageant). At other times, I sit with the widowed woman who gleaned behind the reapers for remnants but turned out a royalty to own the field she once depended on for leftovers. Not only that, she was listed in the hall of fame and faith of scripture. This attests to what my PoP will say, "it doesn't matter where your start; it matters where you finish." That woman many know was Ruth. A woman who started out in the corner and ended up in the corner office. Other, time I find inspiration from the bad sheep of the family who saves her family not through the honey house between her legs but through her strategic and negotiation skills. Hence, PoP said, when they ask us to "shake your money maker," we should shake our heads because the storehouse of our wealth is between our two ears, not our behind. The woman, as you know, was Rehab. The international prostitute who negotiated her way and that of her family out of impending destruction. On some days, I stop by the house of other good, bad, and nasty girls of the bible, learning what to avoid from their errors as much as I draw lessons from their strengths. As PoP would say, life drops clues and crumbs of wisdom everywhere; you can't be so discriminatory that you die of foolishness when wisdom beacon everywhere.
But I must confess to you that there are days the story of this women offer me no comfort whatsoever. They appeared so distant that even if they were kin to me by covenant alignment, I wanted someone not necessarily skin to me but at least someone who was "closer." There is something "magical" when your heroes and sheroes are people that have a face to them. People who look like you. When I read about women in the bible, I am inspired that they made it to the pages of the book, given the patriarchal nature of their society and the phallocentrism of its writers. Still, there are times when I want something more. On days like this, I have to look in my backyard. I look into my history and lineage like I look into all my handbags and dress pockets when I lived in Brooklyn (another way we say SAPA in my circle, no disrespect to the Bronx). Sometimes, I even raise my bed up just in case my father's propensity to hide his money in different parts of the house because of his "distrust" for banks has caught up with me (one time, he was told his signature was irregular; it was the last time I remember he had an official account).
In my lineage, I found stories of women and men too numerous to mention. Women whose life is a book in themselves. Based on that, I concluded that I won't let anyone tell me that to embrace Jesus, I must abandon my ancestors and ancestry. If you share my faith, our Judeo-Christian ancestry is in Hebrew 11, and that of your ancestry is what you should create for yourself. So I use both sides by the side. Because of these heroines in my backyard, on days I am tired, I speak to myself in Sarah Jakes Roberts's (SJR) voice, girl, get up! SJR reminds us of the words the master said to that young woman Tabitha on death bed many years ago, applies to every woman everywhere, girl, get up! The same word our savior offers to Tabitha is the word to every woman, womxn on the bed of despair, worry, anxiety, uncertainty, confusion, break-up, divorce, widow, financial bankruptcy, and beyond this list "Girl, get up."
It is one of the reasons why calling myself Aburo Iya Olamide is not an appellation; it is a reminder of the generations of women I came from. Women who fought until their final breath. Women who refuse to acquiesce to personal, professional, or pastoral bullies. Women who define their worth in ways that are uniquely theirs not anyone's checklist. I told myself, "ololade's daughter, don't let anyone keep you in the periphery of their vision and then want you to center them in your gaze. You matter!" You can find heroines in your backyard!
If, like me, you always find it in the writing of Black women everywhere who write out their life and think creatively in ways that seem that they saw both yesterday and tomorrow in a glance, get it from them. If you find it in the ink and the fountain of my PoP, the one and only Bishop of the Battered and Sheperd of the Shattered, Bishop TD Jakes, drink from it massively.
Whatever you do, don't lay on the bed of sorrow, defeat, low self-esteem, and impostor syndrome. "Girl, get up"!
From our hearts (sister-mum and I) to your home, hearts, nation, corporation, company, and the world,
Happy International Women's Day!
Posted on Facebook on March 8, 2023
Image: Florence Ajokeade Johnson-Solomon
