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WEWMAG
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WINTER 2021 WOMEN EMPOWERING WOMEN
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Christnas THE CHRISTMAS POEM
FROM THE EYES OF A CHILD By Katherine Ani Christmas is a great celebration. Having fun with family and friends. Gathering round the campfire, roasting, toasting marshmallows. Spread the holiday cheer to bring your loved ones so near! Baking down a family recipe and sharing loved memories. Cooking Christmas dinner is always a delight with crackers to share and cookies laid bare Tucking into homemade pie, dessert is on the list so high. Let’s spread the holiday cheer, People going around the table with presents to tear. I love Christmas, it’s a festive family affair.
Katherine Ani is an award winning published poet.
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WINTER 2021 WOMEN EMPOWERING WOMEN
WHOLENESS
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FINDING PEACE 7 Steps to Overcome Disappointment By Pamla LaDon Klenczar
T
here will always be ups and downs in your relationships and situations. Have you built up a fantasized version of what your relationships should be or how a situation should work out? What are your expectations, hopes? Disappointment is a feeling of sadness caused by the non-fulfilment of one's hopes or expectations, it is not the end of your life it is a component of your testimony. Rise up and resist with the force of prayer, you are not a loser. Disappointment is just an event, it is inevitable. You will always come up against it, what counts is how you overcome it. I hear advice to pray harder, fast more, and you will get GOD to change your situation. This makes me angry; GOD doesn't move because you pray harder. Praying harder when you are disappointed and feeling hopeless only increases your hopelessness. GOD wants to increase your hope and urge you to take a positive step forward into the blessings that already belong to you. When I asked people what their number one disappointment was, every single person answered relationships. It could be your spouse, parents, children, friends, or co-workers. In each case, their expectations of how they should be treated
or loved were not met. They found that the foundation that they thought they had only existed in their own minds. My own marriage has been a disappointment. I was angry all the time, I had been emotionally abandoned and nothing was like what I thought he had promised me. I couldn't see any light at the end of the tunnel as the pain consumed me. I resigned myself to the fact that this was my life. I realized that disappointment had wounded my soul and only GOD could heal that. It has been a long journey! But it is now my testimony. I choose to believe what GOD believes about me and draw close to HIM! HE will never leave me! HE said I am the head and not the tail! I shall not fail at life! I am victorious! What is the gift that GOD brings you when you are disappointed? For me, that gift was love and knowing I mattered. I was worthy to be loved and heard. I was able to start standing up for myself in a way that was a gift of love to the abuser. Expecting to receive only disappointment while allowing yourself to be abused is NOT love. You were created to be loved and cherished. While my marriage does not bring me satisfaction or feelings of being cherished, it may never at this point. In seeking GOD'S wisdom, I have been www.wewmagazine.com
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The Importance of the Younger Woman Knowing
Her Worth
By Latanya Renee Maynard
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he words "Know Your Worth" is a personal statement of affirmation. The phrase measures how a woman values herself regardless of what others may think or say about her. It is also a personal declaration of confidence about one's beliefs and values. Frequently, younger women are challenged regarding their worth and well-being, particularly
WINTER 2021 WOMEN EMPOWERING WOMEN
self-esteem, self-confidence, self-love, and relationships. Growing up, I was very slender and lean. My peers and family did not think that I was attractive; instead, they would call me Olive. Olive was a very skinny female cartoon character from "Popeye the sailorman" television show. Furthermore, some would even compare me to a female suspected drug addict in
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the community. The callous and insulting words had the potential to damage my selfworth and self-esteem but I did not allow these potent remarks to crush my confidence. During my teen years, I entered three beauty pageants. I was a final contestant in each pageant but did not win. After each loss, even though disappointed, I never doubted my abilities. I got up and tried again, and each time I developed stronger in my resolve to continue growing and loving myself. I am well aware that disappointment and defeat cause people to doubt their abilities and interfere with setting goals and accomplishing them. However, I did not allow those losses to lower my confidence, abilities or interfere with my value and self-love. During my adolescent years, I continued to experience more embarrassment and discouragement. I can recall two significant events that really challenged the way I viewed myself. First, at age 15, in front of my peers, a teacher told me to stop cutting my hair because it made me look like an older woman. For weeks, my peers taunted and ridiculed me with loud outbursts of laughter whenever I was present. My self-esteem was crushed and riddled with embarrassment; at that moment, I can remember being quiet for the remainder of the day. I continued to cut my hair because I was in love with short hair styles and liked the way mines looked on me. Similarly, a year later, while discussing my interest in competing in the Miss Bahamas beauty pageant, my aunt highlighted the imperfections and blemishes on my legs. At that moment, I truly felt unworthy, but I never openly expressed my feelings. However, since transitioning into adulthood and beginning the "Know Your Worth" movement, I have realized that when people do and say negative things, it does not necessarily have anything to do with you but everything to do with them. I have shared my past experiences because I had every reason to give up and lose myself in the process. I was not taught or made aware of my worth during my formative years, which is the story of numerous young women. Diminished by domestic and substance abuse, I witnessed my mother and other women in my immediate family's struggle
“When people do and say negative things, it does not necessarily have anything to do with you but everything to do with them.”
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WINTER 2021 WOMEN EMPOWERING WOMEN
FEATURE INTERVIEW
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Stepping out With
a r e V
GILES NORRIS
I
met Vera Giles-Norris on a social media site called Club House. Vera was talking about her foundation called Missing Please Come Home Global Alert. Not only did her stories of people who were found through her foundation grab the hearts of listeners, it pulled at my heart. No one wants to experience their loved one missing for any reason, but it happens everywhere. Those missing can end up never coming back. Vera’s mission interested me and I wanted to share her stories and experience with our readers. WEW: When did you realise that you had a purpose and how did you start to walk in it? VGN: I realize that I had a purpose for my life when I was three or four years of age and my grandmother who would remind me often about the veil that I was born with over my entire body she would tell me about how when I was born, I was gift wrapped. I was not a normal birth and how I would be different from most people and how God would use me to do a mighty work and that one day I would find out exactly who I was and when I found out to never be afraid because it’s nobody but God who had and would keep me covered in such a mighty way. I started walking in my purpose when I was young 4 to 5 years of age I would dream of things before they happened and I could speak with people and know things about them that would encourage them and help them feel better and more empowered it was as if after www.wewmagazine.com