Tirzah M. Johnson
Fairytales and fiction were never of much interest to me. I wanted to deeply understand real people and real stories, as I have always had a passion for empathy.
I spent my summers in Tuscaloosa, Alabama pouring through the diaries of children from the days of the Oregon Trail and slave journals wanting to understand how they could live in a world without the advantages I readily appreciated in mine.
Are your goals limited by your perception?
I think of my great grandmothers who lived in the times of some of those stories. I wonder how they saw their world while growing up.
Did they live in wonder of what life had to offer or did fear shape their world in such a trying time in history?
• Mamie Portis who lived to be 98. A black woman married to Vivian Portis, a man who opted out of his white privilege for their marriage.
What was their dream for a bi-racial family in a world of black and white in Walker Springs, Alabama?
• Alice Murphy who lived to be 109. A gun slinging-black woman from Selma, Alabama. As a double amputee, she was the oldest person in the state of Alabama at the time her death in 2006 outliving 12 of her 13 children.
How does a single mother and field-worker buy three houses on prime property without the ability to read or write or the privilege to attend school?
Understanding that history, I am deeply grateful I was able to take their dreams of education further for our family legacy.
What a privilege. I was taught to read.
What a privilege. I was allowed and taught to write.
What a privilege. I was able to go to college not once, not twice, but three times and move through my goals to eventually teach at a college level at age 24.
What a privilege. This all started with me being allowed and taught how to create my own actionable goals.
So here I am, sharing this system to share that privilege.
I challenge you to step into your own privilege to use this "Dreams That Stick" guide to create your list of goals to build a life of love and wonder not fear.
Sending love, light, and gratitude ✨
Tirzah Moneé Johnson
