Surviving is important. Thriving is elegant.
-- Maya Angelou

Each of us is a survivor of something. Our forebearers, be they Africans, Italians, Cubans, Jews, Mexicans, Native Americans or whomever, survived the ride to and/or living in this country. Daily we survive bigotry and racism, media slander and outright abuse. Every day women survive misogyny, men survive misandry, and all of us survive misanthropy. Each of us has endured hurtful relationships, betrayal, dishonesty, anger, and loneliness. Some of us have lived on through bad or missed medical and emotional diagnosis; others of us have lived on through miseducation and faulty information. Each of us has survived the passing away of loved ones. We’ve each survived an overabundance of stuff that had the potential to stain our souls and break our backs. We are, no doubt, survivors.

But after we survived, we did even more – we lived to tell about it. And each time we told our story, we grew, blossomed, peaked, shined, and matured.

Think on the slave and holocaust narratives that provide first-hand accounts of the experience of bondage and genocide, and how each of these stories acquaints us with unimaginable struggle and torment. Imagine that each time a story was told, its teller found solace, rest, and peace as they released the words and memories of their experiences and that each narrative told was purposefully shared to implore and instruct us to live free and well. Each storyteller lives on as we read and reflect on their chronicles and gain or renew our strength and courage to do just what they hoped for us. Through us, they not only survived, they thrived.

After surviving the Jim Crow era, living through inferior treatment and accommodations, we prospered, owning our own homes and businesses and teaching our children more than survival ways of thinking and behaving. And though we’ve sweat and oftentimes gotten off center, possibly our ancestors are proud of and avenged by our increase. Likewise, despite our disheartening efforts at love and relationships, despite the emotional bashings we’ve received by trusting in one another, we’ve remained steadfast in our attempts to find and be in love. We’ve suffered disappointing experiences and their fateful aftermath, yet we’ve not given up on love because we knew to do so would be a casualty, an act of unmitigated personal and communal betrayal, an overthrowing of the resilience within us. Instead, we’ve trusted and given of ourselves again, each time growing a little more, shaking off the bruises, and rising a little higher.

We’re thrivers, not just survivers. We haven’t just lived to see another day and whatever that day brings. We know how to find the joy and blessings in that day because survival taught us there was more to living than just getting by, that there was grace when we got over the hump, and the lessons to be learned and taught would sustain and perpetuate us and those we touched. At this very hour, each of us can shout and sing for not only making it through, but for flourishing after the fires and storms of our lives. We are even more beautiful because we survived.

Sadiqqa © 2007