In spite of the ache. I will rise a thousand times again. -Andra Day From the first time Andra Day flashed across my TV I was curious about her. At a very quick glance in that Apple commercial I thought she was Rhianna then I was convinced that she was related to Rhi. But neither are true. She's a Bold bad girl all on her own. And her debut studio album Cheers To The Fall earned her not one, but two Grammy nominations. Rise Up, the song that holds our lines this week became a major hit featured in commercials, TV series and more. These lines are giving me Dr. Maya Angelou vibes and I love it. Sometimes a girl just needs to read something that tells her she can do anything. Because we can. We can do absolutely any freakin' thing we put our minds to. We can lead. We can invent. We can bring children into the world. We can raise them to be caring responsible humans. We can show up behind the desk, behind the cash register, behind the camera, behind the podium or behind our man and give it all we've got. I am on the verge of tears as I write this and I think about the beauty and the gift that God created when He carved out the being that is woman. My goodness we're amazing! And the crazy thing is it's taken over 2,000 years for society to even begin to understand that. Finally we are holding more CEO and corporate president positions. Finally we are holding more positions of political power. And even with that it seems we have to fight and work extra hard to prove ourselves worthy. Still some will question our background, qualifications, sexual history and more. It's quite frankly exhausting. Too often women are downplayed, disrespected, overworked and underpaid. I have been in social media groups and witnessed grown men picking apart women's' appearances or debating whether or not a wife has contributed to the success of powerful man or (this one really gets under my skin) how much child support a mother deserves. Talk about aches. This is a pain in my butt! It pains me to see women I know question their desirability in the workplace or in the bedroom, but I hold out hope that the tide will continue to turn as I do my part to balance the scales. My ministry and business are centered on empowering women. I go to the core of who they are and shift their mindset to the place where they realize that they are a gift. I guide them in rediscovering their passion and I watch their lives transform as their perspectives change. Rise. I also spend a significant amount of time going through posts of social media friends and acquaintances purely with the intent of complimenting and encouraging my sisters in the struggle- which in case you don't know by now is all women. I'm every woman. I want to see every woman rise. I know what it's like to be manipulated by men at work and in relationships. As a woman with personal and professional goals I spent too much time questioning my worth and feeling hopeless. So I proudly combat those feelings whenever I can. I will never forget the stress I experienced trying to construct a memo and request a meeting to ask my supervisor for a raise. I knew full well my colleagues were getting paid significantly more than I was and looking at the workload and output it didn't make sense. I thankfully got an increase: even though it was not as large as I requested it was an accomplishment. A win is a win. I had to take a stand for myself regardless of the outcome. My mindset had already made me a winner in the situation. I had to rise. Despite the disparities and the hurt we rise and rise again. Did I say again? AGAIN. Because you better believe it happens over and over. Still I have hope. Like the song says 1,000 times. atb
