“We never forgot about you.”
“We came looking for you.”
“And we found you.”
I heard those words in a video around 1:30am. I had one blank page left in a brown leather bound journal on my side table. I wrote those words down because I never want to forget them.
They had meaning. It was life-giving.
It was spoken by a diver. She is a member of a group: Diving with a Purpose. Their mission is to deep dive into oceans on the hunt for shipwrecked vessels that once held captive Africans. They teach people how to measure the ship, collect vital information and preserve history. These men and women, many of whom are Black, feel compelled to learn to dive, become guardians of history to find us.
Those who never made it.
Those who chose the sea.
I wept a little as I watched. Their resolve was clear. Their bravery and curiosity stoked flames in me.
What will I deep dive for?
What will I fight to preserve?
What will I not let slide anymore, desperate to believe he or she or they “didn’t really mean it?”
What is my battle cry?
What will I live for?
What am I willing to die for?
I may never bear children.
But that does not mean I will not have legacy.
It does not mean
I will never give birth
These words
I believe in their power.
And they come from
Me.
Kristina Hamlett writes to connect, heal, and be a force for change. 