God Gave Us a Memory So We Can Have Roses in December

Ask Pearls of Wisdom® dedicates this week’s advice column to the life and the legacy of Rosa Parks.

(PRWEB) November 5, 2005 -- How appropriately named at birth -- Rosa. A resilient flower full of beauty and strength --- esteemed for generations as a flower of affection and potency.

Our Mother of the Civil Rights Movement, Rosa Parks exemplifies all that a rose has to offer: gentleness, resilience, and a lingering fragrance that calms and strengthens anyone coming into its presence.

Yet, its power and influence through quiet persuasiveness has wooed even the most unwilling recipient for centuries. It has persuaded the strong. It has encouraged the saddened. It has been peace for unrest.

Our Rosa was a rose who stood among the thorns of racial injustice, the stems of moral hatred, and the leaves of battled inequality.

Our Rosa persuaded even the most reluctant of persons by staying steadfast and strong.

Our Rosa withstood the winds of inequality, the rains of discrimination, and the heat of disparity.

Our Rosa could even have been named Pearl – for she was a walking and breathing pearl of wisdom that once said,

“Have you ever been hurt and the place tries to heal a bit, and you just pull the scar off of it over and over again.”

Her words were prophetic --- the power of her thorns will last forever.

Artists need not exaggerate the beauty of a rose, musician’s words will never be adequate enough to capture a rose’s effect, yet it will be revered, photographed and sung about for centuries.

So, in the December of our Civil Rights Movement, we are left with the memory of Rosa’s impactful fragrance of wisdom and strength, her gentle and unassuming demeanor, and the brilliant color of racial equality and justice for all.

As our rose walked in our American lives, her fragrance of strength lingers on to evoke, move, and inspire even the most unwilling. We will smell her strong and lasting power that has changed our society. It is with our Rosa we will get a whiff of the courage she endured through the struggle.

And as often as we recollect and smell her lasting power, we will know she is pressed lovingly into a book of revered remembrance and courage to continue the struggle.

Offered in Loving Tribute to a Woman of Many Generations from The Pearls of Wisdom From Three Generations -- Today’s Pearl of Wisdom:

Rosa Parks spoke the following words:

Pamela Remembers… I do the very best I can to look upon life with optimism and hope and looking forward to a better day, but I don't think there is anything such as complete happiness. It pains me that there is still a lot of Klan activity and racism. I think when you say you're happy, you have everything that you need and everything that you want, and nothing more to wish for. I haven't reached that stage yet.

Theresa Remembers … Memories of our lives, of our works and our deeds will continue in others.

Celia Remembers … I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.

About the Authors:
Authors, Speakers, and Columnists, grandmother Celia Ford, daughter Theresa Allen, and granddaughter Pamela Simonson were 75, 50, and 25, when they wrote their best selling collection of family sayings, famous quotes, and affirmations, “Pearls of Wisdom from Three Generations.

Write your question or problem to PearlsofWisdom3@aol.com or mail to:

Ask Pearls of Wisdom
PO Box 441608
Fort Washington, MD 20744

Copyright ©2005

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