Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase. -Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

This has been one of my favorite quotes. Before today I would have titled this:  Keep the faith, take the step… but the holiday turned my thoughts to a different direction.

Every time I ask my children what was their favorite vacation, I’m reminded that our ideas of “favorite” are very different and for different reasons.  One of their favorite memories comes from the time we went on an educational journey of a lifetime to Memphis with family and friends of the Lutheran Family and Children’s Services CALL Mentoring program led by Ms. Christine Reams, Director, Community Service DIvision.  Thanks Ms. Christine…!

I was considered chaperone on the way there but I returned home a humble student. The trip taught me I had so much to learn about the experiences of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and others who paved the way for my children and I to have certain freedoms.

We had an amazing time hanging out in the Stax Museum, home of American Soul Music, and riding the ducks (Memphis Duck Tours) through the streets of Memphis right into the muddy Mississippi River!

For me, one of the most sobering parts of the trip was our visit to the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis.  The museum was built around the former Lorraine Motel. The Lorraine Motel is where Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968.  While in the Museum, visitors are able to get a birds-eye view of room 306…

It was like stepping into a world and time that fills me with great sorrow, anguish and yet I’m grateful to be in the here and now.

Unfortunately, at the moment my emotional floodgates are open because some of my loved ones, those I knew as a child from generations ago, are not here to see what I see.  They can’t see the world that my children live in; the world we have now become.

Today, I’m just going to keep drinking my coffee through the tears and cherish the moments I have with family, friends and supporters. I’m also holding onto the faith and belief that the small steps I continue to take matter.

Thanks to all who are also keeping the faith, taking the steps and pushing the envelope of justice and freedom.

More about this day:

• The Meaning of The King Holiday  -The King Center
• Presidential Proclamation — Martin Luther King Jr., Federal Holiday, 2016 (The White House)
• Martin Luther King Jr. Biography -Nobelprize.org
• The Lorraine Motel and Martin Luther King -The New Yorker
• MLK Day: Why on Monday and what was Stevie Wonder’s role?  -USA Today

 

© CJ Spencer, 2016

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Dreamstime Credits:

1) Top image of Stone Stairs by © David Coleman.    2) Middle, top left image of the Bus Boycott Exhibit by © Clewisleake: Montgomery bus boycott exhibit inside the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis Tennessee.    3) Middle, top right image of an Occupy Wall Street Protester by © Gabe9000c: NEW YORK – SEPT 16 2012: Occupy Wall Street Protester holding Martin Luther King, Jr. poster attending the organizing marches for the one year anniversary of protest in Zuccotti Park in New York City.    4) Middle, bottom image of Statues by © Clewisleake: Statues of African Americans marching and yielding protest signs inside the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis Tennessee.