This means we have had to deal with grief in the most unusual ways, have had to adapt to new customs in saying goodbye, and forging ahead in this new normal, in many cases, untethered and unsure. So, believe me when I say I sit in gratitude for having both my parents still with me in this realm, even though the dynamics of our relationships are changing. I know, at this point, you may be asking, "Sister Maria, what does this have to do with sustainability? Being green?" Well, the very foundation of what I do and why I do it is because of relationships—my relationship with the Planet and my relationships with the people around me. The relationship that is shaping much of what my life is going to look like for the foreseeable future is the relationship with my mother. Reaching in the past, at how my mother parented me, and how she showed up in the world independent of who she was to me, my siblings, and her spouse is intriguing.
Every step that my mother took or didn't take has given me the esteem I needed to confidently walk into spaces where no one else looks like me.
Every lesson my mother instilled in me has given me the love I needed to confidently say in these spaces I should not be the only one here who looks like me. Every time my mother volunteered in our community to make it better than she found, it gave me the blueprint I needed to confidently embark upon the task of bringing some people who look like me with me! My mother's example is the reservoir upon which I draw when I get tired in this work. My mother's voice is what I hear when I want to give up. My mother is more than just the reason I exist, but she is why and how I live. Out loud, unapologetically black, and with the knowledge, that servant is not a dirty word but one of the best possible titles to ever be called. Henrietta Cornelius Milburn Coward is the relationship I hold dearest to my heart; it has made and is making me who I am. She, my mother, is who I am honoring in my musings today, this day, and every day as she is the EPITOME of being as black as coal. Sis. Maria
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Black as Coal: The Blackest of Faces in the Whitest of SpacesMy Life in Sustainability Archives
March 2023
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