It’s been a while since I’ve posted but felt like sharing this through the blog site. This video presentation was my mother’s 65th birthday gift earlier this month. Very touching and well done. Sharing it in the hopes that it blesses someone else. Tootles!
poetry
“Fathers”
The unspoken and often, unsung, heroes that anchor us.
They are providers of tough love, encouragement, and the challenges that shape us and strengthen us.
Fathers are our coaches.
Fathers provide examples of what a princess should expect and what a man should be.
Fathers teach us when it’s OK to cry and when we must suck it up and press onward, when to accept defeat and when to fight for victory.
Fathers love us unconditionally.
Fathers are strength personified and love on legs.
To good fathers everywhere, thank you for giving us our first glimpse of God.
©2016 by Dr. Connie R. Shipman
The Audacity of Hope
A poem by Dr. Connie R. Shipman ©2017
From their homes, their place of safety, our ancestors were stolen. Brought to a foreign land and forced to become less than who they were born to be, they survived, they fought, and they thrived, due to the audacity of hope.
For the rights that we have today, for the freedoms we enjoy to work and live and love alongside those not of African descent, freedoms that should not have had to be a fight, but were, all were brought to bear due to the audacity of hope.
The endurance of the water hoses, the dogs, the false accusations and wrongful imprisonments, inferior schooling and substandard housing, we had the nerve to survive and even thrive, due to the audacity of hope.
We rule, we teach, we organize, we preach, and we serve as activists, still due to the audacity of hope.
Why do we dare to hope, regardless of the challenges? Because there is power, strength, viability, and endurance in not just the ideal, but the certain sincerity that exists in the audacity of hope. Selah!
#hope
Father’s Day – 2016
“Fathers”
The unspoken and often, unsung, heroes that anchor us. They are providers of tough love, encouragement, and the challenges that shape us and strengthen us.
Fathers are our coaches.
Fathers provide examples of what a princess should expect and what a man should be.
Fathers teach us when it’s ok to cry and when we must suck it up and press onward, when to accept defeat and when to fight for victory.
Fathers love us unconditionally.
Fathers are strength personified and love on legs.
To good fathers everywhere, thank you for giving us our first glimpse of God.
Every Mom
To the single moms, who do the work of two parents and often go without so their children can thrive, who sometimes feel alone and forgotten, we say: You are remembered and we THANK YOU.
To the adoptive moms, whether through step children, foster children, or children left to you in a will, for your decision to love and your strength to sacrifice, we THANK YOU.
To the foster moms, who apply for the honor to raise children for both the short-term and long-term, who give time, resources, and fight for those who have sometimes been abandoned, abused, neglected, or deemed unlovable by another, we say, “THANK YOU.”
To those that did not give birth but you constantly give the type of hugs, love, and nurturing that only a mom can give, we say, “THANK YOU.”
To all “moms” everywhere, for all that you are and all that you do, we simply would like to say, “THANK YOU.”
Written for Mother’s Day 2016
©2016 by Dr. Connie R. Shipman
Broken Crayons Still Color*
Inadequacy is not your name.
It is an emotion, a feeling.
It can be overcome because broken crayons can still color.
Delayed dreams do not have to be denied.
Live Your Dream.
Be your dream.
Broken crayons can still color.
You are purpose on legs.
You are purpose in human form.
Use your brokenness to help others in their brokenness, for eventually, He rebuilds us all to become whole.
On your path to wholeness, let your light so shine among men, for
Broken crayons can still color.
Let us see you color.
© 2016 by Dr. Connie R. Shipman
*Title and inspiration for the poem taken from a sermon by Bishop Rosie S. O’neal, Koinonia Christian Center Church.
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