For today’s message, I drew inspiration from the soul of a song by The Spinners, Sadie. Today, we lift up a different kind of saint. We aren’t just talking about the ones with the pristine aprons and the organized calendars. We are talking about the Sadie mothers. The ones who didn’t have a trust fund or a village, but had a sweat-and-spirit fund that never ran dry.
To the Mothers in the High Places
For the mothers who have elevated to another realm: We see you. You’ve traded your worn-out shoes for wings, but we know you’re still checking the stove of our lives from the other side. You aren’t gone; you’ve just gone internal. You are the whisper in our intuition and the unexpected warmth when the wind blows. We love you across the veil, holding onto the promise that the reunion will be the greatest Sunday dinner ever served.
To the Self-Taught Matriarchs
We honor the women who raised us while they were still raising themselves.
- The Cycle Breakers: There is a specific kind of sanctified grit in a mother who pours from an empty cup, especially those who had to invent motherhood from scratch because they weren’t given a blueprint themselves.
- The Alchemists: To the ones who took little more than love and turned it into a feast. You didn’t have the how-to manual; you just had the have-to heart.
- The Quiet Architects: You built homes out of nothing but prayer, duct tape, and a Spinners record playing in the background.
A Touch of Spirit & Grit
As the song says, “Sweeter than cotton candy…Stronger than Papa’s old brandy.” There’s a divine wit in a mother’s love, especially our Black matriarchs from times gone! It’s the ability to tell you, God is good, while she’s figuring out how to stretch five dollars into a miracle. It’s the spiritual authority of a woman who knows that while she couldn’t give you the world, she gave you the soul to navigate it. Such mothers conquered the impossible by taking the fragments of a difficult world and piecing together a sanctuary. Those same women stayed in the gap, loving us with a fierce, transformative devotion, until we finally learned how to love ourselves. To the women who turned faith into a frontline and sacrifice into a legacy: We see you, thank you, and carry your fire within us. To all the Sadies, grandmothers, foster moms, and heavenly watchers: We see your hands, whether folded in rest or still guiding us from the stars. One day, when the war is won, we will see you again!
To the world, you might just be one woman. But, to the children you raised against the odds, you are the bridge that carried us from not enough to more than conquerors.
Signing off somewhere near the coast…HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY TO ALL MY SISTARS AROUND THE GLOBE!!
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