The Flames

I see her and I feel like it will be ok. She is beautiful. Her hair flies out in soft black bunches and little curling tendrils and I wish my hair would just once make a statement like that.  When you first just see her you don't really think much. She is a little bit quiet and you can tell there is a slight bit of apprehension about what she is about to do.
She begins to speak and you hear this authority come out of her heart. This authority that she speaks the truth she knows and she speaks it in love. I find myself captured by her ever increasing beauty. Then, she dances. The dance though is no ordinary performance completed in ordinary time. Her dance is a sermon. She speaks of a God who is above all other Gods. She speaks of the love this God has for all the people.She speaks of laying down the burdens we all carry. She speaks of God and of love and she says not one word.
Her hands move with the authority of one who knows for sure the movements of the dance. Her motions are poetry. My heart leaps in my chest and even though her song is not one that I sing my heart leaps because across all these boundaries we are sisters, beloved of the same God.
Behind me there is another woman. This woman is the past and her feet are standing in defiance. Her hair is cut tight to her head and her skin is soft in color and in texture. She stands in defiance. She stands to serve those who are not singing her song. She stands testiment to the ways we have walked before and hope never to walk again.
I stand with head bowed and heart leaping. This is my future and I am walking toward it. I am walking toward a place I have never dared to know. I am walking to a place I thought reserved for those wholly other than myself.
If we could take a picture, the three of us, you would not see anything to striking. You would not see anything too striking unless you could imagine. Imagining the flames burning above our heads. These flames that dance in strength and beauty. These flames that dance saying "I am part of this magnificient world! I am part of this creation! I am the beloved of my God!" And, if you caught the glimpse of this in us, perhaps you would see the flames burning in all of the others.