becoming

 i just finished reading michelle obama's memoir. i am amazed at her willingness to be so open about her life and feelings.





political books rarely appeal to me, but i have been a biography lover since childhood.

the title is great. it admits what all of us know.... we don't know what we are going to grow up to be because we never stop growing.

it's always a surprise when i pass by a mirror and see that old woman. where did she come from?

we are all becoming.

her journey of becoming reflects many women of today.

infertility is about as common as diabetes but for most women it is a secret to keep.


for an african-american woman to tell of her experiences is even more unusual.

we need to know that we are not alone

in becoming, michelle preaches that our hopes and desires for ourselves and our children are not dependent on political party or race or social status.

we need to hear this. i am convinced again and again that when we listen to each others' stories, our differences are diminished and we see each other without the labels.

her writing on her experiences of grief refelected exactly on the way i have felt.

it doesn't matter if death is unexpected or not.

loss is loss.

our feelings of loss are one of those universal experiences where telling our stories bring us closer.


am i good enough?

a question michelle asks herself from childhood. is it not a question most of us have asked along our journey?

i probably ask it every day.

it is important and for many of us really hard to continue to answer in the affirmative.

we need help. we need family and friends and community to affirm us.

it's not a given but her southside chicago family provided this to her. it is what she wants for her children and for all children.

if there is a theme to becoming, it is that our children are our greatest resource and that all we do is for them.


barack didn't have the same kind of support, but he had the support he needed.

our family doesn't have to look alike.

our family just needs to be there to tell us every day that we are good enough.

we need to be told that we can.

so that we can become what god created us to be.

i've avoided putting these people on a pedestal... but they have given this country a beautiful model of marriage and family. i think one of the best things about this man is that he saw what a wonderful woman she is and held on.

we don't need to look like their family. they don't need to look like ours.

we just need to be becoming a people of love and thankfulness.

thank you, michelle, for who we are both becoming.