A Salute to International Women’s Day!!

Happy International Women’s Day!!  I am always excited about any day that celebrates women and their greatness!!

A Salute to International Women's Day

“THE LIVES, SACRIFICES AND CONTRIBUTIONS OF WOMEN HAVE BEEN AND CONTINUE TO BE THE FOUNDATION OF A PROGRESSIVE SOCIETY.” SHEREE THOMAS

Here are some of my favorite quotes from some awe inspiring women.

International Women's Day Quotes - Oprah Winfrey

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International Women's Day Quotes - Elizabeth Gilbert

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International Women's Day Quotes - Mother Teresa

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International Women's Day Quotes - Madonna

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This year’s IWD campaign is #BeBoldForChange .  Last year, organizations and individuals around the world supported the #PledgeForParity campaign and committed to help women and girls achieve their ambitions; challenge conscious and unconscious bias; call for gender-balanced leadership; value women and men’s contributions equally; and create inclusive flexible cultures. From awareness raising to concrete action, organizations rallied their people to pledge support to help forge gender parity on International Women’s Day (IWD) and beyond.  But the World Economic Forum predicts the gender gap won’t close entirely until 2186. This is too long to wait. Around the world, IWD can be an important catalyst and vehicle for driving greater change for women and moving closer to gender parity.  Source: IWD For more information on the fight for Gender Equality , visit the International Women’s Day website here.

What are some of your favorite quotes from formidable women?

Things I want my girls to know

Things I Want My Girls to Know - www.stage-presents.com

Parenting is one of the hardest jobs out there.  Like most parents out there, I often find myself wishing that I could protect my girls from all the pitfalls that lay ahead.  I am sure it’s not much different than what my own mother must have felt while watching my sister and I grow into young ladies.  But, I must admit that it’s only now, that I am a parent of two young girls that I am I even starting to get a glimpse into the sheer panic that she must have felt.  I remember thinking that my parents were too hard on us or that we  were way too sheltered.  I had lots of opinions on the best way to raise myself.  My son now 18, almost 19 felt the same way, and, I’m sure my girls will too.

As a woman, I often think of what I could tell my own little girls that would help them to avoid some of the pain and heartache that I went through.  Knowing all too well, that just because I tell them doesn’t necessarily mean that they will listen, and that they won’t have to find their own way.  Over the years, I have started keeping a list of things to tell them, which eventually turned into a Pinterest Board on my Personal Page here.   And, I am pretty sure that the list will get longer as they get older.  My long term plan is to have these quotes and words of wisdom put into a small book that they can carry with them when they leave for college.  Here are just a few of my favorites..

1.  Be Yourself.  An original is always worth more than a COPY.

2.  If you can’t be kind, be quiet.

3.  Don’t let someone dim your light, simply because it’s shining in their eyes.

4.  Comparison is the thief of joy.

5.  I hope you know, you are capable, brave and significant, even when you feel like you’re not.

6.  Someone who is worthy of your love will never put you in a situation where you feel you must sacrifice your dignity, your integrity, or your self-worth to be with them.

7.  Rudeness is the weak person’s imitation of strength.

8.  Hope is the little voice you hear whisper “maybe” when it seems the whole world is shouting “no”!

9.  Laugh when you can, apologize when you should & let go of what you can’t change.

10.  Beauty without Intelligence, is a masterpiece painted on a napkin.

The Educated Child Quote

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I am sure there are things that you want to tell your little ones as they grow.  What are your thoughts?  Consider sharing your quotes or Words of Wisdom with us in the comment section below.

The Greatness From Whence we Came — A Tribute to Black History Month

During the month of February(Black History Month), I have been sharing Black History Facts on our Facebook Page.  And, I was amazed at how much I didn’t know, almost every person that I shared, I either didn’t know about before, or knew nothing of the scope of their contribution to society.

The Greatness from Whence We Came - A Tribute to Black History Month

The whole experience left me in awe of the “greatness from whence we came”.  The ability to overcome and conquer the circumstances under which we were forced to live and the injustices that we had to endure created DIAMONDS.  “When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure.” – Peter Marshall

Our contributions to this country are immeasurable and continuous. These quotes by many of the “GREATS”, give a glimpse into the struggle and those who fought to not be defined by it.

If we accept and acquiesce in the face of discrimination, we accept the responsibility ourselves and allow those responsible to salve their conscience by believing that they have our acceptance and concurrence. We should, therefore, protest openly everything . . . that smacks of discrimination or slander. – Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955) “Certain Unalienable Rights”
It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others. . . . One ever feels his twoness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warrings ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder. -W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963) The Souls of Black Folk (1903)
I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes. . . . Even in the helter-skelter skirmish that is my life, I have seen that the world is to the strong regardless of a little pigmentation more or less. No, I do not weep at the world—I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife. – Zora Neale Hurston (1901-1960) “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” (1928)
Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed. – Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) Up From Slavery (1901)

I am both proud and humbled.