Peggy M. Fisher, author
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Welcome to Our Home...

...where we celebrate FAITH, HOPE and LOVE.

Sandy Bland Speaks

8/11/2015

 
Committing myself to the stillness within me each day is difficult, but it is necessary to ease my health challenges. Today my thoughts are pulled away from the stillness to Sandra Bland.
  We may never know what happened even with the ongoing investigations, but one thing I do believe is that someone else other than Sandy should be held accountable.
     My take on Sandy is that she lives in many of us. I see a young lady who seemed to be going in a positive direction with self determination and purpose. A road that many of her age could model. She was about change in her life as well as others.
    As a young woman many years ago, I traveled to Texas for  the first time and I saw the signs" For Colored Only." We had friends who sheltered us from this blatant segregation. What I didn't know was that we had been to a drive Inn theater that had this sign at  the entrance, but I didn't notice it until that night!   I said to my friend, "We are not going in there, turn the car around." I was annoyed, Why didn't I see  that  sign before? These ugly signs have gone, but unfortunately the embedded  roots are  sometimes invisible in our minds as well as others.
    I had been accustomed to discrimination all my life in New Jersey: segregated  schools, sitting upstairs in the theaters stretched along Broadway and more. We lived in a mixed neighborhood, but when we ventured into some white sections  "Go home nigger" was hurled at us and we moved swiftly through these paths before dark.
     Sandy's brief life struck a chord within me. What if many of our young people were as mindful as Sandy. Listen to her voice, follow her tracks. A path for many that is filled with noise and roadblocks facilitated and manipulated  by the media.
     It is difficult to know what our ancestors are telling us through Sandy. For me, it is the need to focus on her positive attributes so that we can fight the violence by law enforcement in the halls of justice. Also, much can be done to elevate our young people from the confusing paths of self deception that lead them down paths of self hatred and no return. There are organizations out there to join and push the movement through the halls of justice to the streets lined with takers who have sucked the blood of our children. Exploitation of  our people by any color should be condemned.
     Sandy wasn't perfect, because there are no perfect lives, but her videos speak messages that can benefit all of us.  She was not grooving to "nigga this" and "nigga that."  Sandy was grooving to "Say it loud I'm black and proud."  She was a millennial who Lorraine Hansberry, our talented play writer would call "young, gifted and black."
      Ms. Hansberry's voice is timeless: "I speak to you because I can think of no more dynamic combination than to be young, gifted and black. ..Look at the work  that awaits you!... write about the world as it is, and what you think it ought to be and must be -if there is to be a world … Write about our people - tell their story. You have something glorious to draw on begging for your attention. Don't pass it up. Use it… This Nation needs your gifts.  Perfect them!" 
     I remind myself as well as others that healing is a process not a prescription, each person's experiences in the journey will differ, but the commonalities will be the same; new horizons to empower ourselves as well as the next generation. Be blessed with the drumbeats of our ancestors as we hasten and strengthen our footsteps.


On Writing

7/18/2015

 
One day my uncle said,"Peggy one day you will write a book."
I smiled and shook my head.
Me?  "Uncle that's pretty farfetched.  When would I find the time?" I was 26 years and deeply engrossed in my psychiatric studies at Teacher's College. I questioned, why would  a people watcher and avid analyzer of behavior find the time or even care?
Writing words are for people who want to find time
in the corners of their minds: To dream in front of a bookstores
with their book on window display and  a six figure book deal churning around
their brain.
Fast forward a few decades later  after many conferences and twists and turns  I discovered my path...
For me writing has been  about changing myself as well as others by   uplifting ancestral voices  lost along the way, voices that need to be heard.
Writing   is caring enough to Think BIG; to link another's mind to yours, to take risks, explore dreams, turn over memories .
 Writing  is about healing myself  as well as others.
Would I  like to make money? To say that money  doesn't enter into  my mind
would be  a lie and aren't writers supposed to tell the truth? : -)
 

Coming of Age at this AGE

7/9/2015

 
     I had several careers: beginning as a kitchen worker at the age of 15 years in the local hospitals. I left  Camden  for New York and spread my wings  as a sales girl at Macy’s in New York before heading to the  Lincoln School for Nurses in the Bronx. I left there to pursue a short career in the Army Nurse Corps at West Point and later in Bussac. France.  Leaving there I came back to complete my Bachelor’s and Master Degrees at Teachers College, Columbia University.
     After completing my studies I began teaching Psychology and Sociology to nursing students. My last professional career was spent working with young people in the Philadelphia public school system. When I retired my immediate plans  included traveling to other countries and designing  beaded jewelry from the stones I collected in my world travels.
      I have always been an avid reader, a people watcher problem  solver for myself as  well as many of the  students  I served during my three decades of counseling them.. I was content to get inside of other people’s heads. Exposing my thoughts in writing was something I hadn’t  pondered. but then I  decided I had to write some positive poems and themes in 1993 to down play some of the negative words and music which seemed to be everywhere.
     Yes, I had written in my creative writing courses, but it was always the critiquing of another person’s writing, that I  enjoyed, And so  putting together my opinionated creative writings and try to make them “hang for others” was a task. Only after I did several revisions was I able to allow anyone to see or hear what I had written. Forces moved me to complete and publish a book combining the survival skills of faith, love and hope. My inspirational poems, 8x12 framed and unframed, became  very popular before and after the book Lifting Voices was published.
     I decided to  self publish my first book in 1999 after a traditional  publisher said, "It will take another year." I had no intention of writing  another book. It was too much work and I was “too old.” I left the conference with the voice of my instructor ringing  in my ear. She praised my writing and said, “Peggy, what’s age got to do with it? "
     Slowly the muse sitting on my shoulder made me realize that I  needed to start paying attention to some of the beginning “stories”  revolving in my grey matter. It was then I realized that it was my time to write!  


I am Peggy Margaret Fisher

7/6/2015

 
I am My Piggy, Peg, Auntie and most of all Grandmom, Mom, Mommy and Mama.
I am the color Evergreen learning new things all  the time.
Musically speaking I am a fusion of Opera, Classical, Jazz and Rhythm and Blues. 
All of these have been my saving grace.
I am a chocoholic who has learned to curb my addiction.
I am at home in the bustling crowds of New York City where nobody knows my name and I don’t care.
I am a keeper of my culture who was a  reluctant writer until I realized it was my time.
I am a determined, sometimes frustrated, caregiver who leans on my faith to explore when to “hold on” and when to “let go.”  
I am a world  traveler who knows the best journey I have made is within my soul.

OUR HOME.

6/28/2015

 
Picture
May those who enter this house share 
love and joy as well as sorrow. 

Let every voice be heard with 
respect and understanding 
loving, listening and lifting- 
reaching for the sun beyond the clouds, 
gathering strength-uniting all within 
keeping us centered for all our tomorrows. 

Sharing and caring make this house 
OUR HOME 


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