As we near the end of our Black History month and the beginning of Women’s History month…it feels fitting to highlight the life of Mary McLeod Bethune who was unknown to me until I read the following FB posting by Joe Becigneul:
“People called Mary McLeod Bethune ‘The First Lady of The Struggle.’ The struggle being improving life for African Americans.
Born in 1875 in a small cabin close to Mayesville, South Carolina, Mary was the fifteenth of seventeen children of parents who had been enslaved.
From a young age, Mary was inspired to learn. With encouragement from her parents, she’d walk five miles a day to attend the mission school nearby. The experience set a foundation for her life. ‘The whole world opened to me when I learned to read,’ Mary would say.
For Mary, her love for learning evolved into a profession of teaching. And after some years of being a teacher, Mary opened the Daytona Literary and Industrial Training Institute for Negro Girls in 1904. The initial class of six students learned from a curriculum that began at 5:30am with Bible study and continued throughout the day with a focus on self-sufficiency skills development until the school day ended at 9pm With sparse financial resources, as Mary started the Institute with only $1.50, amongst a number of cost-saving initiatives, students made pencils from burned wood and ink from elderberry juice. But within a couple of years, the number of students attending grew to two hundred and fifty.
Mary had a motto for life: ‘not for myself, but for others.’ Following this creed, she dedicated herself to many initiatives throughout life. Amongst educating young students, she opened a hospital and training programs for nurses, took an active role in politics, where she held a number of positions, including Director of Negro Affairs at the National Youth Administration, and helped integrate organizations such as the Red Cross.
Mary passed away in 1955. In her Last Will and Testament, she wrote nine maxims – “I leave you to love. I leave you to hope. I leave you the challenge of developing confidence in one another. I leave you a thirst for education. I leave you a respect for the use of power. I leave you faith. I leave you racial dignity. I leave you a desire to live harmoniously with your fellow men. I leave you a responsibility to our young people.”
Mary went on to say: “ Faith, courage, brotherhood, dignity, ambition, responsibility — these are needed today as never before. We must cultivate them and use them as tools for our task of completing the establishment of equality for the Negro. We must sharpen these tools in the struggle that faces us and find new ways of using them. The Freedom Gates are half-ajar. We must pry them fully open.”
This beautiful soul was a Warrior for education as well as nursing…bravely building a path for many black students who had been denied access into these fields…thereby changing history…an unsung hero!
Even today, there is a continued need for racial healing on all sides. Given that truth, the following poem/meditation on “Insight Timer” app titled “Heal the World” by Chetana Parmar may be helpful:
“You can heal the world…we are one with existence at all times and complete
Nothing you have to gain…nothing there to compete.
Your true self is perfection, divine light and just pure.
Start to love your own being and you will find the cure.
You are part of the world…you are one with it all
There is no separation, start to break down the wall.
Your own healing potential is enormous and real
And by nature your state is to love and to heal.
Within you is the answer and it has always been
Even though full of fear and not seen.
It is time to remember the real treasure you hold…
Dare to open the door and let healing unfold.
Go inside and take care of what’s keeping you blind…
Reaching up to the soul and the truth you will find.
Heal your own world at first, come to peace deep within…
That’s how you change the world and let healing begin.”
Ongoing self-love and healing is so valuable to our holistic wellness, Warriors…progress not perfection and let’s be gentle with ourselves along the way. .
Spiritual Meditation: “Our untold, and therefore unhealed, stories are often the root of all our self-deception.” – Daily Medicine