Ornery

I came across this poem by Nikita Gill this morning and it resonated with me immediately.

I am horrified by so many recent cases showing utter disregard for the abuses women suffer.

It only compounds the original trauma.

I know I am not the only woman triggered for weeks now.

My mother raised me to be “ornery and proud of it.”

She knew that as a brown-skinned, multiethnic, bilingual woman, I would need a lot of inner strength to feel (and be) whole in a society that is all too often racist, misogynistic and xenophobic.

I am grateful every day for that lesson — and that mantra.

It leads directly to the title of my book, Strength of Soul.

I am indeed ornery and proud of it, but I wish I lived in a society that did not require me to be.

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