My commitment to you...
I owe you something different.
Dear Sarah, Gloria, and Ronnie
You are simultaneously a legacy fulfilled of your enslaved ancestors AND the rocket fuel to catalyze transformation for generations to come.
As your Grandparents share with you all the time, we, as a people (black people) have come so far in their lifetime. Your Grandmother grew up in Birmingham,. a member of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church where 4 beautiful young black girls were killed by racist hatred with a bomb.
Your Grandfather grew up as a sharecropper, a system instituted after slavery ended to keep black people indebted to white landowners.
In their lifetime, they've experienced the harsh restrictions of Jim Crow, Civil Rights Movement, and our nation's first Black President, Barack H. Obama. They've seen tremendous change in their lifetime.
My hope was that inside of all this change, you would have a different world. I hoped that I wouldn't have to have "the talk," that you have to behave a certain way, walk a certain way, be a certain way because you are black.
But I still do...and I'm sorry.
You may be asking why haven't we fixed this problem?
Well, I'm not sure we can. Changing of peoples' hearts and minds isn't something that we can legislate or force.
Change comes from within.
My prayer is that you will let me offer you these commitments:
I commit to loving you fully and completely and giving you all you need to flourish and thrive in this world.
I commit to take responsibility for the inequities that exist in our world for all people.
I commit to doing my part to transform racism in our lifetime towards our collective healing, our collective hope, and our collective growth.
I commit to growing myself and looking inward instead of pointing fingers outward.
I commit to asking God, Universe, Life to help us in our cause.
I commit to align with others of like mind and work together to transform our world towards greater levels of goodness, love, and hope.
I commit to keep moving even when I am scared and uncertain.
I commit to take the next step and take the next step and take the next step.
I commit to listen and use wisdom.
I commit to showing up fully in whomever God has called me to be so that I can keep commitments 1-9.
With all my love to Sarah, Gloria, and Ronnie...
From Your Mom!!
Adria Kitchens is a Certified Feminine Power Transformational Coach, Facilitator and Leader and mother of three amazing adult children living their passions in the world. She has been personally mentored by Dr. Claire Zammit, creator of Feminine Power and founder of Evolving Wisdom, for over a decade. She has a MBA, MAFM from Keller Graduate School of Management, a BA from Johns Hopkins University and is a native of and lives in Atlanta, Georgia.