Diva Defined! Exploring my DIVA within...

I'm going to start really Celebrating my inner DIVA. The word DIVA to me means doing something supernatural with something totally natural. I've learned to try to sustain myself by holding on to the integrity of who I am. I don't think that DIVA is a kind of cliche, my definition of a DIVA is ability to do things with emotion and great feelings. A true DIVA's heart is open, and ready to play at her own rules, rules that are feminine and ladylike. It's a compliment to be a DIVA. DIVA is a derivative of divine. She's a perfectionist who does her best in her craft. Maya Angelou said it best, when she said, “I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life’s a bitch. You’ve got to go out and kick ass.” Each of us has that right, that possibility, to invent and reinvent ourselves daily. If a woman doesn't invent herself, she will be invented. So be fierce, fearless, spunky, courageous, dauntless and bodacious enough to invent ourselves, because it is wise. Along the way, we may encounter many defeats but we must never be defeated. You can be changed by what happens to you, but always refuse to be reduced by it.



Even now, I don't know if I continue always like myself, but I learned to always forgive myself. It's inevitable that I will make mistakes but I live and I learn. No matter what happens, I may be loud, noisy, earthy but I'll always be ready for much more living. One of my personal excercises was to write my own obituary, and all that I can think was that I wanted engraved on my stone was, "SHE LIVED." I've learned to love myself. Maybe not my own appearance but I truly love the person I am. Normal is in the eye of the beholder and I can tell you, I sure ain't normal. Yes, I do believe it's very important that we recognize and celebrate not just our heroes but our she-roes, too.

I long, as does every human being, to be at home where ever I find myself. As a DIVA, I ope that people may forget what I have said, forget wheat I did, forget what I wore, but remember how I made them feel. As I make continue to attempt to make innovative modifications, of I don't like something I'm going to change it. If I cannot change it, I'll change my attitude about it. In doing this I hope to laugh as much as I cry. I will love or learn to love all those whom I come into contact with. In my DIVA diaries I want to write so that others hear it and allow it to go straight to their hearts. There is no greater agony to me than not being able to bear an untold story inside of me.  My every word means more than what I blog, I really mean what I post and when in person my human voice will infuse these entries with deeper meaning.

We DIVAs are formalist and precisionist. The rarest ting in the world is a woman who is pleased with a photograph of herself. A woman's face is her autobiography, but a DIVA's face is her work of fiction. Because we are woman, we must step up as DIVAs and make an unusual effort to succeed, because if we fail, people do not say, "She doesn't have what it takes." They will say, "Women don't have what it takes." Never hold back from expressing sentiments that differentiate you from a DIVA to an everyday woman. We have been taught that we should be home as Domestic Engineers, but if we venture out and have what it takes to juggle work, school, home and family, than we have every right to consider our DIVA status. I've never allowed the hand I hold to hold me down.

We see our bodies as instruments, rather than ornaments. We are ambitious, tough and know exactly what we want. We don't need to be anti-man to be pro-woman. Julia Ward Howe explained it best, "When I see the elaborate study and ingenuity displayed by women in the pursuit of trifles, I feel no doubt of the their capacity for the most herculean undertakings." History is definitely Herstory too. Men apologize for their weakness and we are asked to apologize for our strengths. No, not a DIVA. We don't apologize for the things that we believe and say and we like it that way. We do not wish to have power over mend but power over ourselves. When we are told what we may not do, we only understand this as a challenge as to what we can do.


Do not get it twisted. Do not mistaken our ability to love kindly in womanhood as a weakness. We are not inherently passive of peaceful, we're only human. Behind every great man is a DIVA. Every time we liberate a woman, we liberate a man. I am beautiful as I am. I am the shape that was gifted. My breast are no longer perky and upright, my hips are wider than that of a fashionista, but for this I am glad, for these are the signs of a life lived. I am a rose in my husband's lapel. Give a woman a work and she does a great job, but give a DIVA work and she grows balls. We do not try something to be everybody, but we try everything to be ourselves.

No one can ever object to a DIVA being a good writer, accountant, planner or business woman if at the same time she manages to be a good wife, mother, cook, good looking, good tempered, well dressed, well groomed and un-aggressive. We dance and never backwards in our lives, but we move forwards. We keep calm and carry on.  We are not weak or frail as advertised, because there isn't a war a man will step into without a woman to get his back. As much as I try to be a DIVA doll, my DIVA dog tends to raise more hell and fewer dahlias. (lol) Anyway, you rep your DIVA, make sure it's 100% YOU!