BE More

I’d like to think that I live fully, love deeply, think far and spend time being and becoming more and more creative every day. Still, I know that I can be more.

Please understand me, doing more, is not the point here; I believe that we can all BE more.

I’m going to keep this short, because I have some living to do, but I’d like you to start with the following.

Today and beyond, ask yourself, “Why, me, here, now?

What can this day bring and behold? How can you see and hear differently? 

The question of why, me, here, now is an invitation for life to reveal its purpose for you, to you. 

Who are you meant to learn from, to help, to serve? How can you change someone’s life, and who and how will they change yours?

When I ask this question and open my heart to the possibilities, life enables me to BE more.

Yup, that’s it, now get ta living.

Be you, be well, be more.

Bertice Berry, PhD.

The Making of a Division

The Anatomy of a Division

My granddaughter, who looks just like my grandmother

Many years ago, when I had to decide on a topic for my doctoral dissertation, I was told to look within my own life and experiences. “Study something close to you, then step back and let the findings speak your truth,” my adviser, Dr. Liz Mullins told me.

I chose to study Colorism, The Impact of Black on Black Discrimination: Prejudicial and Preferential Treatment Based on Skin Color Differences.

The topic came easy. My family’s color ranged from “white enough to pass,” to “midnight black.” (By the by, over 30 years ago when I wrote my dissertation, there were 144 different ways to describe a black person’s color.)

I uncovered all kinds of things that had never been analyzed and the dissertation has since been the subject of documentaries, scripted movies, books and even lawsuits. However, one of my major findings has gone untouched. Understanding in-group divisions enabled me to better understand divisions across groups. Moreover, (when you have an advanced degree, you have to throw in a moreover every now and again,) I was able to understand how the tactics of the so-called dominant group were used to divide and consequently conquer members of the so-called non-dominant.

In other words, black folks have been using white standards of beauty to determine who was or could be considered beautiful. Of course, this system of stratification was not created by blacks, and yet, somehow, it was adopted and maintained within my own family. My mother would say “At the end of the day, we all black,” but that has not stopped outsiders from saying things like, “Are you sure that's your granddaughter, she looks white?

So, let me bring this to today; to a broader point.

America is being divided. We are being told to take sides. But there are more than 144 sides we can take on over 144 different issues. The tactics of the 1% are being used to divide and conquer the 99-percenters. As soon as we agree that we all belong and are beautiful, someone outside of the group asks, “According to which standard?”

Is this divide of our own making? We know the answer, but those same outside forces tell us that this is not true.

Stay connected people. Look deeply at the source of your schism. Is it based on anything real or is it someone else’s construct?

Folks who don’t understand colorism find it very difficult to believe, and in the future, people will wonder how the United States became so very divided.

Stay connected, because, “At the end of the day, we all black—American---human.”

Bertice Berry, PhD.

Living With Style

Do You Have Style?

Do you have style? Don’t answer too quickly and please don’t try to feign indifference. Style is more than what you think, and much more than the advertisers have indicated. Style is not about the labels you wear; it’s about the only brand you should promote.

Your style should be "brand you." Style is about authenticity and your ability to express who you are by what you wear and how you rock it. 

Like it or not, we all have a style. So maybe the better question is this; is the style you’re wearing your own? Are your expressing what you intend to express? Have you cultivated a style, or fallen in with the masses? Fashion is that amazing medium with which we express our individuality and conformity at the same time.

I recently met a woman who exuded style. She lit up the room and brought joy to everyone in it, and she barely spoke a word.

Aloo Greer walked into the trunk show that I’d been invited to participate in. The space was filled with the creativity of its owners, Steph and Ty. Their colorful, unique hats have been worn by everyone who calls themselves a star and by anyone who emulates them. The space had other artists, including yours truly and it was filled with thoughtful fashionable and joyful folks. They were all  beautiful, artistic, eclectic, intelligent and spiritual. The gathering laughed loudly, looked deeply into one another’s souls and shared easily with their like-minded counterparts.

Everyone was beautiful, but when Allo entered we all stopped.

“Girl give me those shoes.” Someone called. “I want her bag.” Said another. “I need her to give me that hat and while she’s at it, she can slit those pants open, so I can get in them.” We laughed as we jokingly divided Allo’s garments. Each item was unique; nothing went together nor was it brought as a set. Each piece came from a different place and they all told a story. 

              Allo just smiled shyly and allowed her clothes to do the talking. I introduced myself and asked her to try on a garment. I told her that I’d like to see what it looked like on her. Allo bowed her head in reverence, took the garment and disappeared. When she came back, the gathering of the beautiful applauded. They stood around Allo and snapped pictures an made videos of her perfect poses. That same dress had been on my rack all along and no one had tried it, but when Allo put it on, everyone wanted it, or said that they had before.

              The next day, Allo came back and just before packing up to leave, I asked this quiet, yet joyful woman if she’d try on a few others. She did and again, the room was stilled.

As I pondered Allo’s ability to “wear the phone book well,” I realized that when it comes to style, Allo possessed the qualities we all desire.

• She liked what she liked and gave more credence to her own style than to the style others.
•  She walked with confidence and enjoyed the objects she'd carefully purchased.
• Aloo combined pieces more like an art and less like a uniform.
• She didn’t ascribe to someone else’s idea of what “season” she was, and what colors she should wear, nor did she think about where she could wear something.
• He quiet presence and bold wardrobe choices make her a woman of style. 
  

Your style should be as unique as you are. You don’t have to wear what someone else demands, nor should you. Try on colors that you’ve been told to avoid. Add elements that speak to who you are and what you love. Be confident in whatever you wear and spend less money on trying to impress others and more time with impressing and loving yourself.

Be You, be Bold, be Joy.

Bertice Berry, PhD.

Click here to go to NDND designs

Click here to see hats by Steph-n-Ty

Can't Change Your Mind? Move to Your Heart

The 18-Inch Trip That Can Change Your Life

Several years back, I suffered a rather debilitating head injury. I’m fine now, but don’t ask my children. Anyway, in the process of what felt like a never-ending cycle of pain, confusion and misery, I learned several rather important things.

My mother told me, and I was thought it was true, but now I know for sure that thinking is hard work. New thoughts and ideas take more work than anything else.

It turns out that changing your mind takes more energy than heavy lifting. 

But, I’ve also learned something else; once you are open to changing your mind, it is much easier to do so the next time.

 Moreover, once you learn the first thing, the next thing comes much more readily. In other words, learning is not only fundamental, it is exponential; it becomes more and more rapid.

One of the most helpful tools I had during that period of recovery was a book called HeartMath. Researchers at the HeartMath Institute point out that the heart also has a brain and it is often much more intelligent than the one in our head. During that time of confusion and pain, I made a deliberate decision to move my reasoning to my heart.

As I did, a new world opened to me. My thinking was more compassionate and caring, but it was much more. I was open to new ideas and found it almost natural to try things that had previously caused confusion.

In less than a year, I learned to design and make clothes. I take long road trips, and when I do I travel the back roads and talk to locals about local things. Each new encounter is responded with love and compassion.

I still get flustered when my sewing machine “shows off,” and I am known to flip out when I am lost. But when I do, I take a short 18-inch trip from my head to my heart and I can see so much more clearly.

Be you, be well, be traveling.

Bertice Berry, PhD.

www.NDNDdesigns.com

Combating Collective Fear and Anxiety

 Collective Fear and Anxiety

I’ve been giving a great deal of thought about collective fear and anxiety. More and more lately, folks are forming tribal alliances based on their fears.

The best defense lies not in keeping the so-called wrong people out, but in building confidence, purpose, love and kindness for the folks who are in whatever office group, family, neighborhood, city and country that you are in.

So, what is fear and what are we afraid of?

Fear is defined as an unpleasant emotion that has been caused by a belief  that someone or something is dangerous and likely to cause pain and harm. Anxiety is a feeling of worry, a nervousness or unease about something we perceive to be imminent, having an uncertain outcome. (Oxford)

What we perceive to be real often becomes real in its consequences.

My first after-college job was at a shelter for victims of domestic violence and rape. My second job was as a researcher with the Victim’s Assistance Agency in Jacksonville, Florida.

We served to assess and find ways to best serve people who were victims of crime. This was difficult and often depressing work. Each day I heard accounts of the horrors that victims had experienced, and I sought pathways and resources for healing.

One of my tasks was to help design a city-wide survey that would get a better perspective of the problems victims faced. To start, I created a high level open-ended city-wide questionnaire that would allow us to know what we should be measuring before we even began to measure it.

Several observations became more and more apparent. When I asked people what they feared in regards to crime, the list was long and intense. When I asked the level of fear, the response was great and again rather intense. But then when I asked about the number of times that thing had actually happened, I found something amazing; people who had not experienced the thing had a great deal of fear around it. 

Moreover, while they feared some of everything, they knew absolutely nothing about the resources and solutions that were available if something ever occurred. 

Folks had been buying smoke alarms but had no plan for getting out of a burning house.

In contrast, many of those who had experienced the crime intentionally sought and found ways to live without the fear of it happening again. They had surrounded themselves with love, determination and purpose. They participated in activities that made them feel secure in their own being and they intentionally sought out a healthy community that was not grounded in fear.

But those who had not experienced a crime were busy collecting data to prove that their fears were well founded. 

We have all been marketed and fed a daily diet of so much fear that we’ve become afraid of things that we have not and for the most part, will not experience. Don’t get me wrong, a healthy does of fear keeps us out of danger. However, when we believe that our locks need a lock for their locks we become prisoners in our own lives.

Our anxiety and more specifically, our collective anxiety is extremely high. We are afraid of our neighbors and the "others"; those folks we do not know. Instead of getting to know our neighbor, we collect data on how dangerous our neighbor is and seek ways to keep them out of our fortress. But I need my neighbors. I need them to expand my own perspective.

Instead of addressing out faulty thinking; our theoretical perspective, we go out and collect opinions, observations and poorly organized data to support our feelings and predetermined outcomes.

This is dangerous on so many levels.

This week try to step out of your fear and anxiety.

·       Take a higher view of the thing that is causing you to worry. What and who are you listening to?

·       Assess your paradigm, your theory, your point of view.

·       Be honest with yourself about your part in the problem you see. If you can’t see that you play a part, you won’t see that you have power to change the present and create a better future.

·       Create a plan for change.

·       Execute the plan.

·       Assess your progress.

We have the power to change the world around us, but first, we have to start with our own self.

Be you, be well, be purposefully fearless.

Bertice Berry, PhD.

www.berticeberry.com

The Thing You Seek

Increasing Your Excellence

When I was younger, I didn’t care much for goal setting. Don’t get me wrong, I was focused, determined and driven. I earned my doctoral degree at the age of 26 and was a bit down, because I had told myself that I’d get there by 25.

Still, I preferred setting standards; believing that if you live by the standards you set, you will get to the place you desire. This is true, but only in part. The other part has everything to do with the people you align yourself with and you can’t set and live the standards of others.

With Wes Bush

Then I heard Wes Bush, the brilliant engineer turned CEO of Northrop Grumman. Wes said, “If you want to increase the excellence, you must increase the performance.”

Within this most parsimonious statement lies a marvelous equation for reaching any goal. But, you can’t reach a goal if you don’t set one.

My life is now filled with graphs and charts marking and measuring my performance towards excellence.  

When setting out to do anything new or new again:

• Don’t look back in shame or regret.
• Use what you have learned and apply it to what you are      learning.
• Be grateful for where you are now.
• Forge new alliances with those who have the skill sets you need.
• Follow-through daily.
• Assess daily, weekly and monthly.

                                                          

          And always remember, "The thing you seek is seeking you." ~Rumi

                                                                       Bertice Berry, PhD.

                                                                      www.berticeberry.com

On Change and Transformation

You CAN Change

Believe it or not, your personality is not a stationary bike; it can go somewhere. 

We have been made to believe that we are who we are and there’s nothing we can do about it. 

Sociologists, and I'm one of them, are fond of saying things like, “The self is social, we are a product of everything and everyone we ever come in contact with.”

It reasons then that if the self, yours and mine, are created, then they can also evolve.

We have decorated our house, our self, for people who don’t even live there. There are rooms that are never used and drawers that are filled with items we don’t need but are afraid to throw away.

The same can be said for our self; the person that we are.

I am working on some things that I no longer need. My list is long, but it’s getting shorter.

I can always stand to lose weight, but the external stuff is easy to pick out and pick on. It’s the internal stuff that makes us who we are.

I can stop cutting people off in mid-sentence and I can stop cussing at bad drivers. I don’t need to be so hard on myself and I can always laugh more.

Any change, external or internal, should be up to you, and for you. Becoming your best self is not about being what someone else wants, it’s about you doing and becoming what you want for you.

Decide for yourself what you want to work on and get to it.

Be you be well, be wonderful.

Bertice Berry, PhD.

Lessons from A Buried Past

Restored and United:

Lessons from a Buried Past

I had just gotten back from a healing place called Kanuga, but I was scheduled to go out again. My sister/friend Brynn met my daughter Fatima and I and off we went to Sunday school with President Jimmy Carter in Plaines, Georgia.

Brynn and I had been before, but I wanted---no, I needed to go again. On the way, Brynn told us about a place that sold peaches in every and any form, including homemade ice cream, so we got off the highway and took the back road to Lanes Southern Orchard.

I’m not big on dairy products, but I’m always up for an adventure; both were delicious. Afterwards, we decided to stay on the back roads for the rest of the trip.

We were laughing and singing with the soundtrack to Hamilton when I spotted an unusual site. From the road, I saw a cemetery like no other. Over the redbrick wall, I could make out hundreds of headstones lined perfectly together.

When we could get a signal, I did an internet search for the town and discovered a place that none of us had ever heard of.

The Andersonville National Historic Site is a memorial to American prisoners of war, but it was also one of the Civil War prison/internment camps to this nation’s Union soldiers.

We knew that we had to go back, so on our way home from a moving time with President Carter, we intentionally made our way to the memorial site. Soberly, we drove through the enormous compound, listening to a guided narration on the car’s radio. We learned that over 70,000 Union soldiers had been imprisoned there. 55,000 of them died there. We made our way slowly past the stockades down the trenches and around to the cemetery. We could not speak. Thousands of headstones were lined up shoulder width apart. 

We learned of the work of a Dorence Atwater, a former prisoner of Andersonville, who kept a record of the names and numbers of the dead, so their families could be notified. After the war was over, Atwater used a smuggled second copy of his records and worked with Clara Barton, matching the numbered markers with the names of the dead.

My time at Kanuga, Sunday school with President Carter, at the historic site in Andersonville and even at the peach market, have led me to this; we are moving further and further away from our own truths. We have replaced them with the business of noise and things that look like living, but we are doing anything but.

As an African American northerner, living in the South, I don’t often want to hear about the Civil War. But as an African American Northerner living in and loving the South, I cannot walk into a Civil War cemetery filled with Union soldiers without being deeply moved. I need and want to know more.

This nation is divided in so many, many ways. I have come to see that if I want others to be united, then I need to be restored and united within my own self.

Get off to a quiet place, take a short trip, go see the history in your mind and in your own backyard, then ask yourself this question:

What do I need to see, recall, recollect and remember?

Be you, be well, be restored.

Bertice Berry, PhD.

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

I wrote this post several years ago. I'm back on track and grateful for it, but last week, I had the chance to speak to the Icons of Dentistry, women who have been trailblazers in their field.

I also had the opportunity to meet one of my heroes, Dr. Dan Fischer. Dr. Fischer is the founder of Ultradent, an inventor, entrepreneur and modern day abolitionist. His work heals and literally sets the captive free. Read about him and ask yourself what else you can do. In the meantime, let's all take better care of the only self we have.

Okay boys and girls, remember two things; you can’t shoot the messenger and the messenger had to take the first hit.

Wellness begins in your mouth; not just with the things you say, but also rather literally with your mouth.

Last week, I did something that I had neglected for a rather long time. It had been 3 years since my last “visit” to the dentist. Prior to then I went more than regularly with 6-8 visits and cleanings a year.

I have been blessed with great teeth. At 52 I’ve never had a cavity. A great deal of that is because of the care I had given my teeth, but let’s face it, the other part is pure genetics.
My genetic juice also blessed with me gums that require a deep cleaning every 6 years, but that too had been neglected.

So last week when I broke down and made an appointment (which only happened because my daughter needed to go,) I was embarrassed by the state of my oral health.

Wellness truly starts in the mouth. Your physician probably won’t tell you, because quite frankly, they don’t know, but the lack of oral health is related to heart disease, strokes, joint pain and diabetes. The bacteria of gum disease can get into your blood stream causing a slow and painful death.(Read more about the oral systemic connection)

If your mouth is not well, your body will not be either.

As my mouth put Michele and Dr. Breitberg through a workout, I cried out in pain. When Michelle, the hygienist asked if I was okay, I told her that everything hurt. She was about to call the doctor in for more Novocain when I stopped her and managed to say that the pain came from the realization that I had been caring for my mother, my children, family, dogs and friends, but I had forgotten to take care of my own mouth.

As I cried, I vowed to not let it happen again. I had another appointment with the dentist but I moved it up and got back in sooner.

The gum cleaning not only made my teeth look better; it made my body feel better too. The aches and pains I had been feeling in my back and knees have miraculously gone away.

I find most dentists to be a humble lot. They don’t tend to make big bold claims of miracle drugs and treatments, but what they know about the connection between the nerves in your mouth and those in your body will astonish you. 

If I told you that there was a way to avoid a heart attack or stroke would you listen?

There is and I’m telling you---get to the dentist.

Before you buy another pair of shoes, a dress or even a cup of coffee, put your money where your mouth is and see a dentist.

Be you, be well, be smiling.

Bertice Berry, PhD.

Into the Woods of Your Mind

What’s in Your Woods?

It is a poorly kept secret that I suffer from Mobility Stuff. (Same initials, I just won’t give it power.) After nine years of good and bad days, I’m getting better. So, I’m doing what I need to do and I’m walking through it.

Lately, I’ve been taking morning walks and I'm amazed to actually see some of what’s living in my woods. One morning, a fox strolled towards me before realizing that he might want to go the other way. The fox looked exactly like they do in a kid’s cartoon, bright red with a “sly” smile.

I saw a giant turkey vulture sitting on a fence. She looked at me as if she belonged there and I did not. And then I “discovered” the barred owls who starred at me as if they’d never seen anything so odd.

I may not have seen them before, but these creatures live here, and they have been here all along.

These encounters with the wildlife in my woods got me to thinking about my own subconscious. I began to wonder about what has been living in the woods of my own mind. What wild thought has taken residence and has birthed a family in my subconscious?

What lives in the woods of my thinking, nesting and belonging without me even noticing?

Maybe, I’ll heal better when I clear out the thoughts that have burrowed a nest in my subconscious and have sent pain down my nerves and into my limbs. 

Maybe, just maybe the woods of our mind are harboring creatures that keep us up at night, keep us from moving forward whispering doubt and disbelief.

The fox, deer, owls, vultures and even the snakes that I know are out in the woods can stay right where they are, but the unknown of my mind had better watch out, because I’m doing a clearing.

I am renewing my mind on a daily basis. I’m getting rid of anything that keeps me from moving forward into the best I can be. 

Be you, be well, be healed.

Bertice Berry, PhD.

Becoming Mature

On Maturity

I am now a woman of a certain age, but I must admit, I don’t really know what that certain age is. I’m 57, feel closer to 47 and can’t wait to be 67. I love getting older, more specifically, I love maturing.

For some reason, folks have been confusing maturity with aging. Getting older doesn’t mean that one becomes more mature. When people speak of mature adults, they usually mean old; but this is not the true meaning.

To be mature means that you have reached an advanced stage of mental and emotional development. Maturity is defined as one who is stable, sensible, responsible, levelheaded, reliable and dependable.

By now you are thinking of all the grown folks you know who are just not grown.

Now, join me in turning this on yourself. Ouch. I can only speak for myself when I say that as hard as I have worked and as much growth that I have seen; there are still several key areas in my life that can use some maturity.

I’ll spare you the details, but I will tell you this; it’s time we evolve, grow and become all that we can truly be.

I don’t want to be a 67-year-old kid. I’d like to be a wise and mature 57-year old vessel of light.

Be you, be well, be evolving.

Bertice Berry, PhD.

Where are the Adults?

Be the Light

“Where are the grown-ups,” my ninth-grade teacher had asked. He had just come back from his uncle’s funeral. He said that he’d been told that he was one of the pallbearers and his first response was “Where are the adults?” It was then that he realized that he and his cousins were not the next in line; they were at the front of the line.

So where are the adults? I have asked this question a lot lately. I’ve asked it of politicians, corporate, community and spiritual leaders; I’ve asked it of my family and I have asked it of myself.

The answer is simple; I am.

We are the adults and we must be capable, fearless and ready to shine a light on our own ills and fears. We must be the repairers of the breach. We must be the adults.

I am starting with me, in my own house and in my own life. Someone once said, “Adulting is hard.” No kidding and we should have listened when we wanted to be grown before it was time.

Now, it’s time and as adults we should recognize the fact that time is time and our own is finite, but the light we carry inside of us goes on and on. The light grows with each good deed and life we encounter.

So, shine your light; it's ageless.

Be you, be well, be the light.

Bertice Berry, PhD.

Rebooting

Reboot Now

I think my computer is trying to tell me something. This morning while I was struggling to write a long overdue piece, my computer asked if I wanted to reboot now. “Yes, please.” I told it out loud.

It turned itself off and I decided to go find something else that needed to be done. Before I could warm up my legs to move (yes, I do that now,) my computer screen blinked back to life. It looked totally refreshed.

“I wish it could be that easy for me.” I told the screen.

I didn’t use to talk to things, but I find that my things have great answers, like the other day when my dryer told me to clean my filter before each use---anyway, I wish I could turn myself off for a minute and then come back refreshed and new.

Then I heard her voice, not the one from my computer; the one from the other side. It was the voice of my mother telling me my truth.

“You can, and you should. You've had a job since you were twelve." She reminds me.

"You have always been so busy being busy. When you have to go to work; you work. When you are not at work; you fear not working, so you create work and work at that. Turn all of that off,” she said.

And now you see why I talk to things, because listening to the ancestors is far too accurate for someone who prides herself on being in control.

Just when I gave in to the idea of rebooting, my daughter walked in to tell me about work that needed to be worked, so I looked down at my knees and I told them to come on.

Then, I hear my mother again. This time she’s sitting next to me when she says, “Even iron wears out.”

Be you, be well, be rebooting.

Bertice Berry, PhD.

Stop and See the Love

Stop and See the Love

 My life moves rather fast. If I’m not careful, I could miss all the instances of love that are everywhere waiting for me to just notice.

On Easter Sunday, I went from Savannah, Georgia to Southern Utah.

I could feel bad about not being at my own church on Easter Sunday, but then I’d be denying the power of that evening mass the night before, which left me feeling even more connected to all that is. I’d also miss the power of Love in the beautiful mountains in Utah, complete with caribou sighting. 

Love, like God is everywhere.

I could complain about missing my 2-year-old granddaughter’s Easter egg hunt, where she’d, for the first time, find her own eggs. But if I did, I’d be missing all the love that came from my daughter, who after working late, got up to take her niece to that hunt. She sent pictures and shared wonderful stories of joy and love that was extended to my granddaughter who was a tad slower than the older kids. Those faster kids turned around and emptied their baskets to Alayna. 

Love is everywhere.

I could complain about two flights and a 3-hour car ride, but then I’d have to forget the words of my mother, who was born 100 years ago. To her, all travel was “still faster than the pony express.” She’d marvel at how far I’d gone in the same day.

 Love never leaves; like our ancestors, it’s still with us and is everywhere.

I could be bothered by the fact that I’m not in a big hotel, one that comes with room service; but if I did, there would be something wrong with me. I’m in a beautifully cozy executive suite. The hosts filled my refrigerator with vegan meals and treats that I couldn’t have gotten from any room service menu. 

Love is in this room and it’s everywhere.

I could complain about not being with my family, but then I’d miss the love of the strangers I met on my journey. Love was in the joyful announcement of the flight attendant who told me that they all loved my work. It was in the driver who made sure that I was comfortable and told me that I could have as many stops as I needed.

There was love in the passenger who sat next to me on the flight. He didn’t speak the entire four hours, but when it was time to go, he asked which bag mine was, and lovingly got it down for me.

Stop and see the love. It’s always there, but when you complain, you miss it.

Be you Be Well, Be Loved

Bertice Berry, PhD

Revived

Restored Revived Resurrected

 There are times when even I feel like I am powerless. I sometimes feel like I’m not making a difference and I while I believe, I need help in my unbelief. Sometimes I feel like I’m preaching to a choir that no longer wants to sing.

Then something simple happens to remind me of just how amazing and powerful this journey is.

I got a message from someone who follows someone who follows me. They said that a young exchange student from South Africa wanted to go to church and because I had been posting about my church, they thought I might be able to help.

Say no more. The young woman came to Christ Church Episcopal and she brought a friend, an exchange student from Ukraine. Church was packed, so the young women sat in the balcony with others who made them feel welcomed and loved. (Which is why I’m always posting about these wonderful folks.)

When church was over, we went to lunch and as we sat waiting for our table, I told them about my friend and sister Brynn who has always had an exchange student. Just as I said it, Brynn’s husband walked by. He and Brynn were having lunch there. He shared the magical changes that were happening for them and I was reminded to always believe.

We sat down for lunch and one of the young women asked if I had recently been to Savannah Tech and I told her yes. She laughed with joy and said, “You stopped in my classroom and I told myself that I needed to know you.”

This young woman from Ukraine had been taking an ESL class in the Bertice Berry Change and Transformation classrooms.

We are more powerful than we know. We possess the ability to make a difference in the lives of those we meet.

This Holy week, ask yourself how you can be revived, renewed and resurrected.

Be You, Be Well, Be Resurrected.

Bertice Berry, PhD.