Walk On!

April 1, 1776, this baby girl came into the world and would change the destiny of a nation and its ideas about women's education.  The mathematician taught herself Calculus, Geometry and Trigonometry.  Better than any of her male colleagues, she sat aside the myth that women did not have the brain for complex thinking.

June 27, 1831,  this pioneer, Sophie Germain, laid aside her human mantle and Walked On.

1797 or 1798, verification of the birth year cannot be confirmed: Slaves were not considered people.  Years later, this slave woman would stand out and give a speech in the Ohio Senate on Women's Rights that would shake a state and cause ripples as far as the White House.  Ain't I A Woman? She cried out and went down into the history books.

November 26, 1883, Sojourner Truth, the Ain't I A Woman lady laid aside her human mantle and Walked On.

1820 - month and day of birth unknown, the baby known as Black Moses opened her eyes in some slave hut in Dorchester County, Maryland. How many slave owners she frustrated in their futile attempts to catch and hang her, no one knows.  The number of people she helped into freedom cannot be measured in bodies, but  by the generations that sprung up out of these bodies she helped to escape.

March 10, 1913, Black Moses, Miss Harriet Tubman, was tired, and she laid aside her human mantle and Walked On.

June 27, 1880, a baby who became blind and deaf at the age of two would change the outlook of how handicapped people with disabilities were treated.  Deaf and blind she learned Braille, wrote books and showed that a human being is not defined by the limitations of his or her body.

June 1, 1968,  this pioneer, Miss Helen Keller, laid aside her human mantle and Walked On.

June 12, 1929,  born the youngest of two girls, this young girl had a dream.  She
had discovered her purpose in life but was unsure if she would have the opportunity to live her purpose out.  On  April 5, 1944 she wrote in her diary,

I finally realized that I must do my schoolwork to keep from being ignorant, to get on in life, to become a journalist, because that's what I want! I know I can write ..., but it remains to be seen whether I really have talent ...

And if I don't have the talent to write books or newspaper articles, I can always write for myself. But I want to achieve more than that. I can't imagine living like Mother, Mrs. van Daan and all the women who go about their work and are then forgotten. I need to have something besides a husband and children to devote myself to! ...

I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I've never met. I want to go on living even after my death! And that's why I'm so grateful to God for having given me this gift, which I can use to develop myself and to express all that's inside me!

When I write I can shake off all my cares. My sorrow disappears, my spirits are revived! But, and that's a big question, will I ever be able to write something great, will I ever become a journalist or a writer? (Anne Frank's Diary)

April 1945, this courageous young, fifteen year old girl,  her body rampant with typhus, tossed off her human mantle, and Miss Anne Frank departed Bergen-Belsen and Walked On.

Throughout history,  there have been men and women who have proven

That man's inhumanity to man 
That physical incapacities whether by birth or poverty
That prejudices and severe trials
That even death itself

Cannot stop the spirit of God residing in a person

That is willing to battle every adversity 

And Walk On.

Walk On, I say, Walk On.

Shalom,
Pat Garcia 


Text by Anne Frank taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Frank