Eleanor Hughes Mooney June 19th,1915-March 25th,2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hard Head Woman

I found a poem I had written almost to the day a year ago which was my first indicator that I was "feeling a lot like my old self" until I discovered months after I wrote this that I was actually a far better rendition of me, full bodied hard head woman".

Standing in the Shadows


By Jacquelyn Hughes Mooney©13



There will be no standing in the shadows…

I/my/we…

Will not/won’t not/have not be not

Now matter how tempting, how enticing it may appear in the shade

Casted by somebody else’s shadow.

The flood lights will shine brilliantly

‘Cause this chicka chickiedee bebe said to me.

“This is your awakening…

Smooth your way out of the way of your self”



Or as Trent would say “Stitch your wings back on & fly”!

So your prodigious fabulousness will fire up to the never…

Ever…

Whatever…

(I’ll still be loving you) *



Pulsate, shimmer & shine…

Simmering in a refined

Going to the next line

Of His Grace in a powerful race.

So the chickie, chickie bebe said.



I’ll not stand in the shadows of others’ incomplete dreams

Or incoherent screams

That masquerade as laughter but really is a scheme…

They’ve done all they could to hold you in the shadows of what they’ve deemed

Your place, not your grace.



This moon will prance & romance among the stars, gas & dust …

In a distinguish assembly of love supreme…

Winking & nodding as she stands proudly on a cloud

Orchestrating what it can be

Of what it will be.



She said” I don’t want to be shaded by someone else’s’ shadow

Of incomplete dreams or fearful schemes”

She/They/We know that while it appears ferocious

And the world is atrocious

Or pain’s shadow blinds so one may think they cannot breathe.



You can.

“Breathe now child, Breathe

So the chicka chickie bebe said.

Look in right direction for His protection

An invitation that does not require an RSVP.



There will be no standing n the shadows undercover in someone else’s fear

And unnatural clauses that will make you pause…

From making a way even out of no way…

To His Way, to the truth & the light

So the Chicka, chickie bebe said.



(I’ll be loving you always)*

All rights reservedJHM4-20-13 © revised

Standing in the Shadows (No More)..

"You choose. That's what this says to me: whether it be praise or surrender, to dance or cry, to be still or move . . . this picture says a lot to me about the power of a woman who chooses". D.L. Reid

 

These shots done back in March 2014 by the immensely talented photographer Gus Bennett, Jr of New Orleans for his New Orleans People Program.

 

 

This  fall I will be teaching an art quilting  class entitled  "(For the) Hard Headed Women" with an exhibition to follow in March 2015: Standing in the Shadows (no More) at the Ashe Cultural Art Center in New Orleans. The  Hard Headed Woman & Standing in the Shadows exhibition is part of my Fig Tree Project based on the Bible Scripture in Micah44.  That Scriptural prophecy resonated for me in many ways.

 

The purpose of the project is multi-fold.  Also feeling honored to be a participant in Mr. Bennett's New Orleans People's Program is layered.  On a personal level, I'm at a stage more then ever to not be in the shadows though some who know me would balk at the idea of my being in the shadows at all!  But 5 of the last 6 years, I felt like I was, that somehow I had lost me starting a forced "sabbatical" one not of my liking or choosing.

 

Now reflecting back, I see that time as a molding, a shaping that will render a deeper rhythm while I'm reemerging.   The "shadows" have been embraced, the stories & experiences that were reaching out sometimes whispered, sometime with a plaintive cry,will definitely frame with not only my art but in other ways yet to be rediscovered.

 

just in the last several months, I thought I was feeling like my old self until I came to grasp I had not.  I actually came to be a far better me & what has been showing up, I really liked. I've always liked me, but this enhancement is even juicier.

 

There was no major, dramatic made for TV moment that cause this to happen.

 

I simply was ready...

 

This Hard Head Woman was ready...

 

"Sometimes it is the smallest decision that can change your life"~ Keri Russell