Tahiera Monique Brown

“A Tahieraism: A Mother’s Breath”

tahiera — Wed, 09 May 2012 21:10:34 +0000

I’ve seen many days when I wish I could take my mother’s hand and ask her to help me deal with life’s trials and tribulations. I’ve written many Tahieraisms or spoke purely thoughts of encouragement to friends and family. There are times like this when we are facing a Mother’s Day weekend that I truly wish I could pick up the phone and simply say, Happy Mother’s Day. I watched my mother as she struggled in the last few months of her life. I had planned to bring her home. I knew that I would have to care for her for the rest of her life. At 40 years of life, she was blind now and had suffered several strokes and she had only one arm. My mother was a beautiful woman with caramel skin and perfect teeth. When she smiled the room would light up from her radiance. But, the day came when I had made up her room at home and prepared myself for caring for her. The phone call came for me to get to the hospital. Mama was struggling to hang onto life. I sat by her bedside and listened to her labored breathing and I was there to place my hand upon her chest as she took her last breath and I felt her last heartbeat and I got to say Goodbye without having to say a word. As I heard the wailing of my family outside the door and into the hallway. I was mostly concerned about the two youngest siblings, who would never get to know both of their parents, because my stepfather, their father, had passed away four years earlier. My mind could not rest. I could not release the tears. I could not let go. I carried a moan, deep down inside, for many years. How I would love to go into my mother’s room and watch her in a peaceful sleep, knowing she will awaken and say; “Child, why you looking at me?” So, today let your mother know how much you love her and if you are a mother hold your children close so they can know just how much you love them.

A Tahieraism for Mother’s Day.

A Tahieraism: “The Junk Drawer”

tahiera — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 11:54:17 +0000

Tahiera says: How many times do you toss things that seems to have no purpose to you anymore, in the ‘Junk Drawer’. Imagine that this is what people do to the people that they deem to be unfit for their circle of friends and family. They toss them in the ‘Gossip Junk Drawer’ or the ‘Humiliation Junk Drawer’ or the ‘ They Ain’t No Good Junk Drawer’ or the ‘They Won’t Do As I Desire Them To Do Junk Drawer’ or the ‘They Are Not Good Enough For Me Junk Drawer’ and so on. It is not until someone is told to look in the ‘Junk Drawer’ and take the ‘Junk’ and toss it out that it is acknowledged again.

“Who Can I Turn To: A Survivor’s Journey Through The Justice System”

tahiera — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 00:43:39 +0000

I had to do a speech in Montgomery, Alabama for the Candidates Forum and I had ten minutes to share my story. So I began … I’ve got ten minutes to tell of a lifetime of waiting for this opportunity.

Ten Minutes!

A lifetime, I’ve waited to be able to stand before you, not as a victim, but as a survivor to be given a chance to have a “voice”.

Over twenty years ago, I endured what so many victims are still enduring. For years I endured terrible beatings from my children’s father, until one day he realized that he would never get me to come back to him. He gave me one more beating that left me with a bloody lip, bruised ribs and black eyes. This beating I took to be the last because, I stood my ground and said, “No more!”

A few weeks later a stranger took over my home and held my children and I hostage for two years. The choice I made to save my children almost ended my life and today I live with amnesia. We spent two years as hostages and two years in trial where there were three trials and we spent twenty years dealing with the justice system to keep our victimizer behind bars. He represented himself as his own attorney and even from prison, the victimizer continued to stalk us using the justice system.

I didn’t know who to turn to after the guilty verdict, especially after all of the attorney’s and agents went on about their lives. I had no knowledge of agencies that would have helped me, when I was a hostage. I felt totally alone and lost as a battered wife and even more so, as a hostage.

But, still I stand.

I stand to ask the question that so many victims can not ask, as they are still enduring a great fear upon them. I know their plight, I used to walk with it branded upon my heart. Under my breath I would cry, “Who can I turn to?”
“Who will be there if I begin this journey?”
“Who will keep me safe while facing my abuser in the justice system?”
“Who will take my hand and stay the course with me?”

“If I die, who will carry the torch to keep my desire to be free and to stay alive?”
“Who will remember my name?”
I don’t want to hear another victim have to ask, “Who can I turn to?”
I am here to make a stand!
“Living in Fear is Not and Option! Living Free Is!”
“I was once a Victim! I am Now a Survivor!”

Coward, Courage, Hero

tahiera — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 01:00:45 +0000

Recently Mayor Cory Booker of Newark, New Jersey saved his neighbors from a fire. He was told that someone was left behind and even though he saw that he would have to run through fire to retrieve his neighbor he stared death in the face, even through fear he safely removed the woman only to receive burns on his hands. I did a speech for the Kiwanis Organization called, “Coward, Courage, Hero”. As a hostage I was seen by my victimizer as a coward. When I had to put my life completely in the hands of God to save my children, I was called courageous. Now I am called a hero, by my children and by many in the audience that hear my speeches. I used the analogy of a fireman knowing that should he go through a burning building to save one, he just might lose his life and leave his loved ones behind or if he doesn’t go and save a life from a raging fire then he will have to live with the knowledge that a family will be in mourning for losing a loved one. All around the world someone makes a life or death decision to possibly give up their lives to save someone else. The mayor told the press that he was afraid and in spite of hearing those words, people shouted around him that he is a hero, but his mind was on doing his job to run the city and consider how close he had come to dying or the possibility that both of them might not have gotten out alive, was still very heavy on his heart. What a story that survivor will tell one day, but now she is recovering and the mayor has gotten back to doing his job as … the mayor.

Who Is Tahiera Monique Brown

tahiera — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 22:02:42 +0000

I am witty, funny, spontaneous and my number is three. I have to check doors at least three times to feel secure. You can say I have a bit of a habit and I am a bit eccentric. I am always reminded of how much I owe God, just for having the opportunity to continue to be in this world. This world has much to offer, but I had to learn that it was up to me to learn how and recognize how to seek it and receive it. I am fortunate, because I got many second chances to get it right. Many times I failed, because I did not take advantage of the special gifts that God had given me. Those gifts that was placed within my soul. Those gifts that God trusted me with. Fear was my obstacle that I could hear rattling around me every step I took. Fear closed my mouth when I needed to speak or to shout or to sing. Fear had a strong hold on me. I hid in fear like a trembling kitten caught up in a storm. I could have stayed there shackled up in fear until the only thing I’d know was fear. One day I stood in the mirror naked before my own eyes and the eyes of God. Many people can not look upon their own nakedness. Well, I did and I stared down my fears, but now I had to get to know me as a free person and that can be the true terror and that is why I could have shrunk back into my security called fear. I told myself; “You have amnesia, but you are here to learn. You are here to be a mother to two children that needs you. You are here and yes, you are homeless and only you can change that. See you nakedness and see your freedom, because you are as God made you.” I stepped out on faith and felt my strength and stepped forward on the road to face my fears, dropped the shackles and here I am, free. Yes, I still check the doors three times and I am a bit eccentric, but I am surely free.

Just A Little More Time

tahiera — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 13:16:19 +0000

My mother and my stepfather were very young when they died. I have wondered what life would have been like if they just had a little more time. I have wondered what it would have been like to watch them grow old together. In this world of business, some businesses die away before they get off the ground and some go on to a wonderful old age and to greatness. I look at my business as I am in the process of getting Trademarks, putting a film project together, getting copyrights, hiring a team of experts, creating the ideas, establishing relationships to get funding and so on and so on. I am grateful to be able to be doing the things that I am doing and I am appreciative of having just a little more time to fulfill my calling to produce my talk show, “Living True and Truly Living”.

THE GREAT BEGINNING

tahiera — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 16:33:20 +0000

Today I feel as if I am beginning the first day of my life. It is like looking in a mirror and seeing all of my life that I once lived flash before my eyes. I’ve overcome many trials in my life, but I never really saw how the story of my life would be a driving force to be a healing to others until I saw an audience of hundreds stand to their feet to applaud as one. Now I have reached above the suffering that I endured and I use my voice to help the voiceless. As an advocate I see so much suffering and pain. I hear the words of people who has overcome as they take the podium. I see the heros who take the broken and battered in. I see the scars and I truly understand the plight.

Today, I am in The Great Beginning of my new life. Starting this blog will be a journey for me to log the miles that I travel and a way to share the words that I speak when I step to the podiums around the world. It will be a platform to share the stories of the guests that will be joining me on my talk show. I look forward to meeting so many of my followers here.

The new year is upon us and the new outlook has begun.

Welcome to my blog.

Tahiera Monique Brown