Sister Wisdom (ebook)

Argumento de Sister Wisdom (ebook)

Sister Wisdom

Following the success of her Blackboard bestseller Sister Power, Patricia Reid-Merritt takes a new look at the life journeys of today?s African American women.

Based on eye-opening research into African American women at midlife, Sister Wisdom examines the experiences and environments that lead to lives of satisfaction. The result is an inspiring model for soulful women of all ages.

Drawing on forty-two in-depth interviews, this book heralds resilient women who have high expectations and have learned to make bold choices through six crucial life challenges. Through the years, they have confronted issues of self-acceptance, early love and marriage, career successes and failures, and twists of fate. Overcoming problems and dilemmas both public and private, these courageous women have adapted, adjusted, restructured their relationships, and come out on top on their own terms.

Here, you?ll learn the seven key pathways that African American women today are following to achieve satisfying lives:

• Domestic warriors?whose primary energies are focused on their homes and families
• Single-parent professionals?who by choice or life circumstance take primary responsibility for raising and providing for their children
• Independent free floaters?who are at the center of their own lives
• Passionate soul mates?who are profoundly in love
• Blissful wonders?who have achieved a near-perfect balance between the needs of their loved ones, their professional careers, and their personal desires
• Faithful followers?who derive their strength, direction, salvation, and solution to all problems from their faith
• Soul survivors?whose daily struggles, social burdens, and personal tragedies provide focus, strength, and new directions in life

Sisters of all ages also will be enriched by the wisdom of Dr. Reid-Merritt?s often surprising findings. Some five million African American women over the age of thirty are approaching their prime. Their circumstances are significantly different from those who traveled before them. Filled with inspiration and practical insight, Sister Wisdom lights the way.

PATRICIA REID-MERRITT, DSW, is Professor and former coordinator of the Social Work and African American Studies Program at Richard Stockton College in Poona, New Jersey. She is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the NAACP Freedom Award, and is listed in Who?s Who Among Black Americans.0Preface.

Acknowledgments.

Part One: Our Challenges.

1. The Satisfying Life.

2. The Way We Were:Accepting OurUnique Selves.

3. Great Expectations:DiscoveringWho We Want to Be.

4. In the Name of Love:Surviving EarlyMarriage and Motherhood.

5. The Black Woman ?s Burden:Disruptions and Stress.

6. Can We Just Turn Back theHands of Time?

Part Two: Our Pathways.

7. Love and Happiness.

8. Spiritual Fulfillment:?The Lord Worksin Mysterious Ways ?.

9. Free as We Want to Be.

10. Sisters in the Prime of Life.