Inspirational women, spiritual, earthy & honest
Iyanla Vanzant has been a spiritual writer and inspiration for me for the longest time. I’ve have well-thumbed copies of Acts of Faith and Faith in the Valley that have been great to dip into when relationships are going sour or it’s been difficult to see any light in a dim period of life, So, when the opportunity came to listen to her speak in London, I jumped at the chance; it was a sweltering summer Saturday night in the heart of Camberwell, South London and the black female community was out in force and looking fine! Brenda Emmanus was resplendent as the event’s host, sporting a fifties style gold coloured tea-dress, perfect for this glamorous and uplifting occasion!
She spoke eloquently and passionately about the whole range of issues: relationships, healing, self-esteem, self-belief with self-detracting humour. Iyana he also talked about her career and specifically her writing. She talked about how her words were delivered to her, and her job was to ‘download’ them – that resonated with me as I had written a few words about the same phenomenon in my first anthology ‘Songs of My Soul’ it’s called ‘Bloody Prose’
BLOODY PROSE by Suzy Rigg from Songs of My Soul
“From somewhere in outer space
Hurtling towards my inner core
These words ignite their sleepy mistress
Usually at the tipping point of consciousness
Unable to ignore their urgent knocking
I awake, drowsy yet aroused with words
Entering my head, uninvited
deftly downloading
onto the paper through my physical being,
like a nose bleed.
Unable to ignore their insistent knocking
I write automatically
until the download is complete.
Download Songs of My Soul