Where I Am From...

Where I am From

I am from 3497 Ewald Circle
From Motown…the Motor City

I am from Faygo, Vernors, and pop.
I am from collards, fried bologna, dressing and potato salad.

I am from long trips down South each June so my brother and I could stay for the summer.
I am from my Madear’s farm and the red dirt.

I am from, “When the lights come on, you betta get in this house!”

I am from breast cancer affecting my family so severely that I dare not say the words aloud.

I am from, “Girl, get your education, no one can take it away from you.”

I am from Rodney’s proud stare and Linda’s loving look.

I am from sitting in the kitchen for hours on Sunday night so that my curls won’t make a debut at school on Monday.

I am from, “You can’t play with them…they don’t see your beauty.”

I am from Sunday school, four hour services and then a night service.
I am from love.

-Leslye Folmar

This is me, after him

With the big 30 nearly a month away, I’ve thinking about all I have accomplished, all I want to accomplish and the things that I began but have yet to complete. I’ve reflected on who I am and who I want to become. I’ve looked through old journals and seen old goals and dreams and wondered why I never accomplished them. And the more journals I began to look through I realized that the same five or so goals/dreams have continued to show up. And I was left to wonder, “What in the 10 or so years since has stopped me from accomplishing them?”

My initial thought was to blame everyone else. What my mother and father did or did not do. How my life circumstances were different from everyone else’s. How having a child put everything on hold. I began to have a bonafied pity party. I was mad at everyone else for standing in my way. After the anger subsided, reality sunk in. The only thing between me and my goals was….ME! I’ve doubted myself, not trusted myself and blamed myself out of accomplishing the things most important to me.

However, it occurred to me as I took a closer look at my goals and dreams that in the past two years I had accomplished many of the things that had been “sitting” there for the past 10 years. I wondered why. What in my life has changed in the past two years that freed me to follow my dreams? And then it hit me…the birth of my son. “…The birth of my son gave me the courage to live my life…” –Maya Angelou

He did it, he freed me. Looking into his eyes I knew that there was no way I would be able to tell him to follow his dreams, live life with integrity, work hard even if no one is looking if I weren’t doing the same. Knowing that I would have to be accountable to him later on, made me accountable to me, NOW. Knowing that leading by example would be my most powerful tool made me a better person.

So, I write this to say thank you baby J. Thank you for giving me the jumpstart I needed. This is me, after you.
Xo,
Leslye

Maya Angelou

I need her to know…
(An ode to Maya Angelou)

I need her to know that she is a motivation, a guiding light and my moral compass

I need her to know that when I hear her voice I get chills. Not the chills that show up when my mother used to say she was going to tell my father of some wrong doing done while he was at work, but the kind of chills created when you find out that your grandma knows that you were being “fresh” with the boys after church. The chill her voice induces is different. I want to make her happy

I need her know how beautifully inspired I am by her words. I need to somehow let her know that her story and mine are intertwined. That I’ve been there and at times I go back because the darkness takes over, but her words, voice, spirit and strength are my light

I need her to know that when she passes her baton that she can trust me to catch it. She needs to know that I will take it firmly and run with courage, strength, determination and conviction

I need her to know that I will strive in the most humble way to be for another brown girl what she is to me

-Leslye Folmar