YOU MUST HAVE, TOO!

 

A series of essays….

HUMAN LIFE AND WELL-BEING IS REFLECTED IN THE BEAUTY 
OF NATURE. ALL LIVES ARE BEAUTIFUL AND EACH ONE OF US
SHOULD BE TREATED WITH DECENCY AND RESPECT.

….as seen through my eyes!

By: Jacqueline E Hughes

“Yesterday was a good day for democracy and for America!”

                                                                  —President Joseph Biden

Recently, I remember having lived (uncomfortably) through the rumblings of lies vs. truths (boy, how this one covers a lot of territory!), hate vs. love, what is wrong compared to what is right, and possibly learning how to exist within a world so foreign to most of us that our lives would be compared to those living in an insecure, developing country. You must have heard the rumblings, too!

And, the deep rumblings continue to be heard. I feel them in the depths of my being. Then—yesterday happened! People of all ancestries, religions, and ethnicities helped pull together, literally, at the ballot boxes, drop boxes, and via the USPS and gave us hope to cling to. We are not perfect, by any means, but we sure know how to work together when we need to. You might be feeling this, too!

Whether Democrats can hold on to the House, as well as take the Senate remains to be tallied. Democrats are resigned to the fact that anything worth having is not something that is easily obtained. That’s just the nature of the beast. But, we are learning to fight harder, be stronger, and not accept the easily conjured lies that bounce off GOP walls, as out of control as a bright red, rubber ball; the skid marks left behind indicating chaos and decline. You might be seeing this happening, too!

I have never been a poll watcher or even believed in the speculative accumulation of numbers based on sections of lives gathered by a handful of others. I feel good about this choice. Yesterday’s voting proved to me that my feeling about never following polls is a good one. Knowledge over conjecture is a winner every time. Do you feel this way, too?

The future we desire is not based upon our politics alone. Up until six years ago, we were able to live under a red or a blue administration because we realized that to be happy and progressive, it was best to learn how to work with one another rather than against one another. And, this was pretty much the political standard we all enjoyed within a democratic society as we continued to carry-on in our daily routines. Do you believe in giving everyone the benefit of the doubt? 

I now have renewed faith in our youth and believe that they do care and are concerned about the future. They are not little robots being fed certain data and expected to grow into their parents footsteps, without personal feelings or hope. The protection of the Earth and climate related concerns do take priority in their lives. They are the tough ones who have had to live through the murder of a fellow classmates and the distinct possibility of not owning the rights to their own body after believing that they did. Their struggle to survive is based on their strengths and personal experiences. We must learn how to place ourselves in their shoes in order to understand where they’re coming from.

We continue to grow-up together, side by side, and strive to be stronger than ever! Yes, the deniers still exist after yesterday’s elections. We have, unfortunately, allowed them to infiltrate our daily lives. Their undoing will always be their lack of proper, working policies that would propel us forward in peace and harmony, as well as their unwavering hatred of hard work and forward thinking. I recall my dear Mother insisting that it’s always better to just tell the truth. Lies can only lead to more lies until you can’t distinguish the lies from the truth. Do you remember this hard learned lesson of your youth? When did the Republican Party forget about this?

Yesterday, I learned that there are more people expressing hope and love than people embracing the open greediness established six years ago in Washington D.C. I heard the bells ring on top of the hill drawing people from all walks of life into a much better, kinder place. Our love for Mother Earth and all of the lives she nourishes are the musical voices that are learning to harmonize in glorious solidarity. The tide is turning. I do have faith in the bells, voices, sighs of hope and love that I hear surrounding me today. You must have, too!

Thoughts: let’s be patient, but strong; unified in being truthful and honest with one another. Understand that spreading lies is a sign of weakness. Truthfulness will shine a light on progressiveness. Please remember that democracy is not for sale!

Copyright © 2022 by Jacqueline E Hughes

All rights reserved

AHH—THE MAGNIFICENT SHORT MONTH OF FEBRUARY!

 

A Series of essays....

 
DRIVEWAY CHALK ART BY MY GRANDCHILDREN, DATED APRIL 3, 2020,
DURING THE INITIAL MONTHS OF THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC.

....as seen through my eyes!

By: Jacqueline E Hughes

A Select List of February Monthly Holidays and Observances:

• Chinese New Year
• Groundhog Day
• Valentine’s Day
• President’s Day
• Mardi Gras and Ash Wednesday
• Black History Month
• American Heart Month
• Friendship Month
• Library Lovers Month
• Chocolate Lovers Month
• National Dental Month

With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, coupled with the personal confinement of this COVID-laced world we live in, we have learned how to be a bit more creative when it comes to celebrating this year. Yes, a bit less adventurous, yet more open-minded and realistic allowing us to see and love the world in a much deeper sense while retaining the romantic value of a heart-shaped box of chocolates and freshly cut roses.

I’ve always been a hopeless romantic and can visualize its potential in everything, every place, and everyone I know or hope to meet one day! You might say it began with formal tea parties with stuffed animals which grew into tiny, porcelain tea cups adorned with hand-painted roses and filled with water poured from a matching teapot to be shared with my friends on a sunny front porch in late June. When I close my eyes the smell of ginger delights my senses as I recall the crisp snap of the tea cookies we’d eat with our cuppa tea.

As a young wife I would create a full Bed-and-Breakfast feast for my husband on weekend mornings when we’d sit and discuss our future and where we hoped to travel to when financially possible. Oh, I was definitely the dreamer, the romantic back in the day while Dan struggled to maintain the realism required to keep us stable with feet planted firmly on the ground. Thank goodness!

In our own way, Dan and I kept our dreams alive, our goals intact, and learned throughout the years how to mesh our ideas together and create a life that satisfied both of us. Eventually, this included two daughters who broadened our circle of love and helped shape our close knit family for many years.

Today, I find it highly appropriate that this special day of sharing love is sandwiched right in the middle of the shortest month of the year and serves to anchor, balance if you will, Black History Month. Carter G. Woodson, known as the ‘Father of Black History,’ dedicated his career to the field of African American history and lobbied extensively to establish Black History Month. 

DR. CARTER G. WOODSON

Dedicating himself to the field of African American history after being the second African American to receive his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1912, Doctor Woodson authored numerous books during his career which include A Century of Negro Migration (1918), The History of the Negro Church (1921), and The Negro in Our History (1922). You might say he was a bit of a romantic and a dreamer, as well!

Biography Newsletter notes that Doctor Woodson “lobbied schools and organizations to participate in a special program to encourage the study of African American history, which began in February 1926 with Negro History Week and choosing the second week of February to coincide with the birthdays of Frederick Douglas and President Abraham Lincoln.” The program was soon expanded and renamed Black History Month. 

It wasn’t until fifty years later that President Gerald Ford officially recognized Black History Month in 1976. He called upon the public to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”

Growing up a young, white female in the 1950’s and ‘60’s, the plight of the Black Americans touched me in one way or another every day of my life. You see, for some reason I can’t totally explain, I never saw humans categorized by their color or religion. Eventually, I did come to the realization that others did. Perhaps it was my strict Catholic upbringing by many diverse and honorable nuns who taught that God does not see His children through a lens of color or stigmatized by a particular religious belief. May God bless these ladies with His love and grace!

Alongside the Black achievements throughout history we were taught in school, it was the Black struggle that etched its mark on me, especially in the early 1960’s. The peace, love, and kindness displayed by Dr. Martin Luther King and his close followers helped to meld the radical Black groups, fists held high in pride and protest, with the gentle nature of Doctor King and his beliefs of how to genuinely portray the Black struggle with head held high and ideals held even higher!

Did I fully understand the blending of Woman’s Rights, Black struggles, and the beginnings of Gay Rights emerging as the common threads weaving their way through an unpopular war being played out in a country called Viêtnam? My entire college career was based upon and centered around all of the above struggles with the hope of achieving progress by embracing their cause and understanding their history.

I have always embraced being a product of the 1960’s and influenced by the particular circumstances of each cause presented to my generation. Sadly, after centuries have passed, we continue to struggle with all of these issues while time has proven that multiple generations have unsuccessfully passed through the eye of the needle and into the Kingdom of Acceptance and Love.

Today, I remember that little girl passing out small cups of tea and plates of cookies to her friends on a sunny afternoon and cherish the memory of an innocent moment dictated by a splash of etiquette and whimsy. How proud she would soon be to know that her ultimate ideals will include the betterment of ALL lives while holding on to the notion that this knowledge can and should be shared with everyone.

Because of my beliefs and the passing of time, I already knew how life was filled with strife and adversity; to love and be loved leaves us vulnerable, susceptible to temptation, and being wounded both physically and emotionally. But, who knew that the month of February could contain so much knowledge, history, celebration, and love all crammed into the shortest month of the year?

As I make the coffee and bake an apple Dutch Baby pancake for my particular Love this Sunday morning, I will remember the little girl, college student, young wife and mother, career woman, and friend I’ve become to others via the passing of time. I will be grateful for the numerous accomplishments, as well as the personal strife that have served to shape the person I am today.   

We have so much to be proud of during this month. I encourage you to take time to rejoice in the dedication of people like Carter G. Woodson for keeping the achievements and struggles of Black people alive and strong. Be prepared to stretch this one month of Hope and Love throughout the remaining eleven months of the year and share the positive results with those you love every day of your life. Let’s make each day another Valentine’s Day and give Groundhog Day a bit of a rest.

Happy Valentine’s Day! Stay safe and healthy and protect the people you love. This defines Romanticism for me.

Copyright © 2021 by Jacqueline E Hughes

All rights reserved

Photos Copyright © 2021 by Jacqueline E Hughes

All rights reserved

ANTICIPATION

A series of essays....

ANTICIPATING WHAT AWAITS US AROUND THE CORNER

....as seen through my eyes!





By: Jacqueline E. Hughes

Anticipation is the hope that spreads throughout the body and sends silent tremors from the brain down the arms and legs to the fingertips and lowly toes until the power that surges through us reaches its pinnacle and climaxes into a brilliant crescendo of sound, colors, and textures. Like a frosty morning waiting for the warmth of sunrise, we humans shiver in dawn's chilling embrace while crouching in a fetal position, naked to the world and exposed to the elements. We are left completely vulnerable, unprotected, and waiting...waiting for the morning sun to penetrate our mortal souls. With the light, our hope becomes real. With the bird's song, our heart sings. With the morning breeze kissing our lips, we clothe our nakedness in expectations, great and ordinary, looking forward to what this bright, new day has to offer.

Being human, we can take another path and make our way through the discordant notes of imagined or real foreboding, presentment, until the feeling of discontent looms above our heads like a menacing, black, cartoon cloud capable of precluding brighter prospects. Some days are better than others. Other days, we are confronted by certain scenarios that might be so negatively charged they allow our inner demons to take control of our mental functionality until we no longer have a voice and our options have diminished. Despondency. The dull ache that rips open the soul but is fully anticipated without the least comprehension of reason or purpose. Can the prospect of personal dysfunction lull the mind into a state of adverse comfort with its cold, inimical voice singing acidic words deep within melodies composed of beating drums leading funeral marches to the gravesite? Some of us sit by on the sidelines oblivious to their pain and suffering, lacking the knowledge or reasoning behind such personal conflict and fail to assist or understand them. In hindsight, we will chalk it up to our own shame, denial, stupidity.....!

Remember the written words of Mr. Alexander Pope in his Essay on Man, "Hope springs eternal in the human breast," and extract from these words what you will, what brings for you "the soul's calm sunshine" and the idea that each one of us can achieve true  happiness while on this earth. Oh, to remain open-minded and receptive of this concept every day of our lives would truly be a goal worth reaching and as priceless as the newborn infant entering naked into a world filled with unknowns, but with a clean palette of hope and possibilities! May this child grow strong and healthy, hear and feel the gut-wrenching 'Boom' of each exploding firework while witnessing the majestic spray of glittering and colorful glory high above as new ideas sparkle and swirl gently down around her. Humans are adaptable. The blinding rain that covers us in fear and self-doubt one day, will turn into rays of sunshine tomorrow.

Carly Simon's second album entitled, Anticipation, and released in November of 1971, is an explosive reminder that innocence of mind, purity of heart, and the promise of new love can become a 'tour de force,' a breath of fresh air to those who might have forgotten that passion and love are the true overlords of mankind, not necessarily reason or logic.



Note: This essay was originally published in August of 2014.


Copyright   2019 By Jacqueline E. Hughes
All rights reserved