Often I find certain words, phrases, quotes, stories coming back to me over and over again. Something inside of me tells me there is truth in what I'm hearing. These words inspire me to keep going through rough times and take the extra step when I want to sit down. I hope they touch you as well.

The Starfish Story A young girl makes a difference!

"Never doubt that a small group of thougtful committed citizens can change the world,
indeed it is the only thing that ever has."
Margaret Mead (who happens to be an old racist anthropologist... hmm.. still working on this one...)

"To the world you may be one person,
but to one person you may be the world..."
Unknown
(Laura, thanks for sharing this one!)

Stand up for what you believe in and make a ripple!

"The end is reconciliation; the end is redemption;
the end is the creation of the beloved community."
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
(From a speech at a victory rally following the Montgomery Bus Boycott, December 3, 1956, after a Supreme Court ruling deemed Alabama's bus segregation unconstitutional.)

Immigrant

Interview with Me'Shell N'degeocello aka Bashir Shakur
Right. So I'm trying to connect to my blood memory, and not my skin. And in my blood memory, I've been forced to survive motherfuckers who don't want me to survive. And I blend that with my idea as seeing myself, as seeing this culture... (pauses) I'm an obsolete machine. My ancestors were obsolete industrial fuckin' machines forced to incorporate and integrate themselves into a society that did not want them. But now they see and take all that I have, and they try to make it theirs. And in the midst of all that, I'm supposed to survive, and the only thing I'm holding onto are some memories, some ideas. Africans had no respect for us because we had no initiation process, and our initiation process has become prison. And basically, I live in a society where they call me a pagan, witchcraft, a this, a that. And they on some ancestor worship every day of their life. Every day they pass around their fuckin' money with Hamilton on it, and Benjamin Franklin on it, and George Washington. I deal with their ancestor worship and their ideas every fuckin' day of my life. And so I'm just trying to tap into my memory. I'm trying to get back to the dirt and I'm trying to die a good death. And I don't think I can do that trying to be on MTV.
Me'Shell N'degeocello aka Bashir Shakur