Gal Pal Email Edition 11th

Gal Pal Email Edition 11th
Spring Break Edition
a newsletter for women friends
Quote of the Week:
"I know what I have to do, I have to keep breathing cause tomorrow the sun will rise and who knows what the tide will bring in." -Chuck in Castaway
Thoughts for the Week:"What defines us is how well we rise after falling."

I remember when I was in the second grade and being called out of my name. It was my first time remembering that type of moment. It was this guy named Gary and some kid with him. I was "finally" allowed to walk home by myself. I thought I was so cool and grown up. One day Gary and his friend thought it would be cool to follow me home and throw rocks at me while chanting all kinds of insults. I did not run or turn around. I just kept walking with my head high. Even as the blood streamed from the back of my head, I still walked the same pace. I stifled the cries so that they could not get the morbid pleasure of hurting someone. I got home, and ran to Mama Pat. She looked at my bloody hands, head, and book bag and just was in utter disbelief. She could not fathom that her daughter in the 80's had to face the same things she did in the 40's. Gary was a messed up white boy. For some reason, somewhere he learned that in order for him to feel in power, he had to put someone else down. He was at such a young age so impressionable and had got on the wrong path to seeing people. Sadly, there is probably a time in all of our lives when we were the bully or had been bullied. And though it may be in the past, there is always the residual stuff that lingers in our psyches. At the end of the day, it is important to figure out how we come out of the situation. Though at times things may really hurt, or you may feel guilty as you look back on how you treated someone, think of this...it is all part of the growing process. Things happen, but part of that healing process is not just letting go, but to also see how you can grow from the situation and what you can do to help someone else. Turning the lemons into lemonade is a lot sweeter than downing that bitter *ss stuff fo real. This sista' Maya really had is bar down in this poem, I hope that you can draw from it in a special way that speaks just to your heart.
Still I Rise
(By Maya Angelou)
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies.
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like the moons and like the suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,Still I rise.
Did my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping wide,
Welling and swelling I bear the tide.
Leaving behind the nights of terror and fear
I riseInto a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I riseI riseI rise.

Mama's korner:
Sometimes love is being all things to someone. Being humble is one thing, but being humble in love, this truncates all things we know. It is far from human cognition to be that way. However, in this case, during break the DIVA bows down easily to show that kind of love to her mama. This past week I was plumber, accountant, maid service, drill SSgt., podiatrist, mover, carpenter, chauffeur, psychologist, friend, and relationship expert. Not that I am qualified to be any of these things, but love can make you be all things in that situation that you are most needed. If you are just able to move past your own selfish tendencies and pride, love can abound. My mama has the scariest feet in the world. She has the unnaturally high arch, because in the 40's the in soles were sometimes made with wood. She has no bones in her toes except for the big toes because of a surgery she had in the 70's to get rid of the hammer toes; oh and those are still there. (Hammertoes are toes that make like a fist and then cause things like in grown toenails.) And she has in grown toenails. Those are way gross. My mama needed most for me to cut her toenails, which is like chopping wood on a miniature tree. You chop away trying to what you need to accomplish. You need protection. I wear goggles usually and sometimes gloves, cause those toenails are sharp as hell. This is a true story! You can call my mama and ask her about me being the only child who works those feet. It's the grossest job, but I do it because I love her. And this was something that she needed that I could supply. Hey, you do what you gotta do!HA Ha's!!Top Reasons to visit da field:
1. Seeing my mama in a moo-moo
2. Being home for 30 minutes before hearing 3 gun shots go off in the background
3. Going shopping for mama's foot pads in the middle of the night
4. Seeing Old man Mr. Core with his list'nin stick
5. Grandma's chili even when you don't like chili and you take it anyway, and then she gives you a box of crackers (no pun intended here), oranges and ginger ale.
6. Seeing old friends with names like "C-squared" and "cho-ca-like" and "shot"
7. Fried chicken
8. Fried chicken (so nice say it twice)
9. Going to your old high school to hang with Mr. Manoloff (AP Government) who I love!!! (Future emails)
10. Lastly, Springfield has the best water, we have the best groundwater because we are close to yellow springs, so Kathryn the Nun saves empty containers to fill up on H2O when she comes and visits. (Now you know who fills those things.)
~Always the DIVA...have a great week!!!
Live, Love, and Laugh
Patty Jr.