Fine art print on 1.5” gallery wrap canvas, black border edges.

Madie and Jessica’s story:

Mama Madie is a wonder. She speaks eight languages, disciples countless women, supervises three Refuges and five foster homes, and is raising seven children—only four of whom she gave birth to. She has studied the complexities of trauma and its impact on brain development and counsels women and children wisely.

But what strikes me even more than her accomplishments is the natural gifting and remarkable ease with which she seems to do whatever she turns her attention to. She leads without seeking attention. She teaches without making herself the center. She carries an extraordinary amount of responsibility with steadfastness and selflessness.

I stood beside Mama Madie and Jessica, her oldest daughter, looking out over the Atlantic Ocean. We stood only a couple of miles from the main port of the transatlantic slave trade. For the hundredth time, I found myself pondering the weight of where we are born—a seeming coincidence of time and space that shapes the entire course of life.

Madie can tell you the day she was orphaned. She grieves that she never finished her basic education. She remembers the days when there was not enough food. Her life has looked so different from mine, shaped by circumstances that neither of us chose.

Standing beside her and Jessica on that beach, I felt a mixture of humility and gratitude that I am still sorting through to this day.