The Widow's Might

Amy Lyles Wilson father’s passed away and left her mom widowed. Her mom now had to deal with not only grief but learning to do many things that she had never done before. She was a fast learner so learning how to do things she’s never done before wasn’t hard, it just took courage. For example, pump her own gas or any car mechanics but even throughout the obstacles that her mom had been challenged with after her dad passed away she learned that always, and she means always, you keep going.

Praisesong for the Widow by Paule Marshall is a novel that uncovers how Avey Johnson, a recent widow, goes through physical and spiritual journeys to search for her identity. Along the way, she re-discovers her heritage and eliminates her obsession with middle-class ideals and materialism. And the person that helps her go through this process is Lebert Joseph.

This study was conducted using the phenomenological method. Phenomenology, like midwifery, strives to find meaning of human experiences. Doherty and Desch express their concern for the growing population of widowed women and its contributing factors. Some of those factors include war, terrorist attacks, and natural disasters. Two groups of women were chosen as participants, September 11th widows and US military widows from Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Ages ranged from 21-38 years old and

The title of the book, actually defines how she approached her grieving process. She believed her husband was coming back, and she questioned certain events that could prevent her husband’s death. I

Yet, she still didn’t complain. She knew her life was in God’s hands, that through her struggle He could bring good. And that’s exactly what He did, many were saved at her beautiful funeral because of her. I’m sure that made her smile in heaven. In the ninth stanza, it says “ And Jesus took his own hand and wiped away her tears, And he smoothed the furrows from her face, And the angels sang a little song, And Jesus rocked her in his arms, And kept a-saying: Take your rest, Take your rest.” This is probably one of the most comforting things to hear right now. She had died peacefully in her sleep and then she had awoken in Jesus’ arms in heaven. Her death was a slap in the face to all of us since she had been doing so well. But I think God gives us that time to see the people we love, who are suffering, happy and more like themselves so we can say our goodbyes. He gives us those last memories of them as happy ones. And as the first and last stanzas say, “Weep not--weep not, She is not dead; She’s resting in the bosom of Jesus.” I know I’ve done my fair share of weeping, and I know I still will in the future, it hurt tremendously to lose someone who was like a second mom to

The way that Mary Beth shares her life story also changes when she recounts the events following Maria’s death. Whereas the first part of the book centered on reporting events with a little reflection, the second half of the book becomes more about reflecting and sharing blog posts. Mary Beth also includes excerpts of speeches that were given at Maria’s funeral as well as letters that Maria’s siblings wrote to her after her death. These letters were a way to help Emily, Caleb, Will Franklin, Shaohannah, and Stevey Joy process the loss of their sister. At this point, more so than ever, Mary Beth shows that her life story does not only include her words and experiences, but also those of her husband, children and friends.

This chapter opens with the story of Ann’s son’s farm accident. In this accident, her son injures his hand. Ann gives this story as an example of hard eucharisteo, or the hard thanks. Hard eucharisteo is when you praise God through the tears and tough times. Ann notes that light can shine after darkness. She thinks about the nature of evil. She compares evil to a shadow, which is an absence of light. Ann believes that Evil is just an absence of good. Ann goes on about how God transfigures bad things into good things. Ann believes that God allows grief and pain, so that He can then use it in our lives for our gain and His glory. She goes on saying that God can use darkness for good things in our lives. Ann believes that without illness we could

this novel tells a mother’s account of her child’s life, and the moments leading up to its end, conveying the message of what God’s grace - and therefore the belief in - is capable of in the most hopeless of situations

"Learn to do good, see justice, correct oppression: bring justice to the fatherless. Plead the widow’s cause." Isaiah 1:17 this is just one of many biblical refrences towards the word and action of "Justice". Since the begining of mankind, with Adam and Eve , two biblical characters, justice began in an act that provoked punishent forever towards the two ater eating a forbiden fruit. Justice has always came in different forms and definitions, the one things certain about justice has always been that in every different view and perpective it has carried the same core meaning. If you asked anyone what justice meant to them they would say words like, equal, just,

violent things she had endured. She always talks to God asking him to give her

Her loneliness is not one of melancholy, but one of self-discovery, that may only exist when her soul leaves its clay mold. A body of clay houses the soul, with a breath of life from God giving a gift to nothing to turn it into something as complicated as a human being. By escaping the clay, which binds her to the earth and all the societal expectations that are put on her body, the speaker exists as a breath from a higher being, making her as godly as the spirit which put her in the body.

A testament to the power of persistent and unmitigated faith in God, Shelly Kaufman’s debut novel A Life Established by Faith and Patience shares the story of her life’s trials, tribulations, and successes, in turn demonstrating how her reliance and belief in God’s plans for her life, led her to finding serenity and spiritual victory.

That’s the thing about hard moments, it feels impossible at first. It feels as if you're drowning. At first you’re struggling, trying to reach the surface but not fulling achieve it. Then your lungs start to burn, you’ve reached to point where you have two choices. You can either let yourself give into the darkness, or you can choose to keep fighting. If you were to choose the latter, the panic would start to set in. You would start to realize that you're not done fighting and you start to swim, pulling yourself to the surface. Once you break through, you take a deep breath of that sweet, sweet air. Abby chose the latter, she was the strong one. She pulled us all up with her, never letting anyone choose the darkness. She was strong from the start, all along she knew she wanted to use her experience to help others. She never let her condition hold her back. Doctors appointments weren’t always a walk in the park. She went through them with a smile on her face, even if the news wasn't the best. She kept positive, which gave us all hope. Hope that things are not always going be difficult. Hope that with each hard moment we face; we can overcome it and rise through the challenge. Life isn’t always full of hard

While the speaker is not always her, and should not always be assumed to be the author, they seamlessly pair up with her life experiences. Her poems, and her novel simulate a ride on the road of depression, and mental illness, leaving the reader with an everlasting, chilling

She had little schooling, but she had run businesses. She had managed on her own, with a husband and sons, in a country that didn’t care for her or her culture, but only for their aggrandized version of it. Her experiences were rightful cause to be jaded and hard, and yet she saw brightness and she saw brightness in me. She saw the great things in life, she loved hard and appreciated the little things — us going for a walk together or just sitting in the sun on a warm day.