You ask, “Who am I?”

You are,

The pieces of every woman who came before your time

Scraps of chintz, lovingly stitched together

Calico cloth from an Auntie’s tattered dress

Pearl buttons cut from a Grandmother’s worn sweater

Poetic whispers in the night

A prayer to the stars

Oil and water

Loss and Love

These women formed you whole

How do you honour their brave?

By making yourself small?

By silencing your voice?

No, darling

Find yourself

Each scrap, soft as velvet

Each stitch, strong as rooted willow

Be an everlasting reminder of who you were, who you are, and who you will become

Beautiful, brave, kind

~Brave women, Ancestors