Check out my collection of soon to be published short stories. 

In Each Moment by Michelle Rhnea

As a writer it is my responsibility to develop characters you feel and have bad things happen to them. In Each Moment  is a collection of short stories depicting the struggles, hurts, joys, and triumphs of women longing for the one thing that would make them whole and fulfilled. Self-Love. Here you will find four samples from In Each Moment available in June, 2012. They are hot & heavy; heavy & hot!

A Lot to Celebrate

-->

Commanded by The Most High to remember it.                                

Leviticus 23 first spoke of it.

The prophet Moses told Israel of it.

Joel said Blow ye the trumpet of Zion to let the people know of it.

Reminding us of that great day of the Lord and the power he will show in it. 

Afflicting our souls each year 5 days before the start of it.

No food     no drinks      nor any of our own pleasures to do before it.

That great and terrible day of the Lord is by reason of it.

Who shall be able to stand in contrast to it.

All inside of Revelations is where we read of it.

God will gather his people from the four corners of the world on it

At the sound of the 7^th trump beams true of it. 

The prophets and apostles all knew of it.

King Solomon built an elaborate temple so God could live in it.

Nehemiah re-dedicated this temple after Israel was taken away from it.

John wrote out of the heart of Christ shall “flow rivers of living water” on it

Blessed to know who I am in light of it.

Where I am   right here    right now    in God’s plan in view of it

Sanctified and set apart for where my inheritance lies due to it.

All God’s feast days born of  it

God will gather in his people who trust in it.

The world created other days to celebrate in lieu of it.

Jump for joy   raise your arms    thank God    on account of it.

Pat your feet clap your hands on behalf of it.

Lift your voice to sing praise thanks to it.

Choose to believe in his word since The Father is the one who planned it

And he is the one who has the all the power to finish it

We have a lot to celebrate by reason of it.

The King of Kings and Lord of Lords will finish his ministry cut short from it.

He will rule Israel , 1000 years of peace in his Kingdom on Earth right afore it.

Sitting now on the right hand of the Father interceding so we can be included in it.

Raised to go prepare New Jerusalem with streets of gold entrenched into it.

This city where all those who are called by the name of Israel will live forever in it.   

The prophets and apostles all lived their lives for it. 

The celebrated 8^th day ultimately is it.

The body will forever be delivered from the power of death upon it.

This is where our inheritance lies and we got a lot to celebrate.

It's Real

Scarred within are she and her children.
The children run when they hear his key.
To his son he said, “You dog”
To his daughter he said, “You are ugly”

To his wife he constantly said, “You are a whore”
No cracked bones.
No blood from sliced flesh.
Obscure stats
Wounds that no one can see yet she can feel
Blemishes she can sense in her offspring.
Reaching epidemic proportions
Occurred most everyday
Who says it doesn't matter? Did you feel it too?

Others say she made too much of things
He says it was all in her mind
Some say her sons needed their father’s influence no matter the harm

Others say her daughters would not learn to sustain a relationship
Who can  mouth judgement if you haven't bunked there?
Scripture says God literally hates putting away
So does she         so do they
Witnessed of the wife of thy youth
Anguished by, “should she have stayed and are they better off?
Who knows the plight of a comfortless woman who sleeps next to a man bittered by a life before she wasn't there?
He gets to move on smile perky abated by new help.
While they fight with, “Do we matter?”
Who can mend the hearts broken when he treats them as if they don’t matter?
She thinks the scar that no one can see is healed,
But it keeps lifting its ugly head making her smile go away.
How can he ignore his children as if they don't exist?
How can he depart while their hearts bleed,
While they try to create a normal living
Grieving for an authentic benevolent head
He was expected to rule.   But with an iron hand?
And the basilica cold-shoulders her as if she were nothing.
Improper use of a wife and children

Sad face       tear drop     churning stomach   come and go    from out of nowhere
It's emotional       It's abusive        It's real.
Thoughts loom in her ear, "Why don't you just give up?"
"Give up and do what?"
Eve listened         She will not.
Because iniquity shall abound there are men who find revile too.
Who will ever cherish her like Christ loves the church?
Phew! He’s coming back soon. Thank God!

Memoirs: Emotional abuse

The word misogyny made its way into my lexis the year I decided to make a major life style modification. I abruptly abandoned a marriage of twenty-one years with a "cultured" misogynist husband with five dependent children. My eldest son had just entered college in another state; my sixteen-year-old daughter was preparing to graduate high school at the tumultuous age of sixteen. I also had very "busy" six-year-old twins one always in trouble and the other blind in one eye and can't see out of the other. I had a pre-adolescent male child who was extremely insecure, a bankrupt business of seventeen years, depth up to my nose, a deadbeat father who was dying of cancer and now needing my help, and a good reputation that was then shattered because of my choice.

As a means of self-therapy I read book after book on emotional abuse, its effects on women and children, and how to recover. I came across a book called, "Men Who Hate Women and The Women Who Love Them" written by a psychologist who wrote the book as self-therapy for she too was trying to regain a confident and productive life after spending ten years with a misogynist husband. It was during this reading that the word misogyny entered into my vocabulary.

According to the author, misogyny [ I pronounced it, "miso-gyny" as in gyne-cologist], is a man who hates women. Additionally, the author defined the suffix gyny as women. The Oxford English Dictionary also defines it as the hate or contempt of women; however, it does not specify this woman hater as particularly male. It has a Greek prefix, miso, meaning hatred. The Oxford English Dictionary declares "gyny" or "gyne" to be a queen, the fertile female of an ant colony. It is interesting to me how a term so commonly used to refer to female temperament and female bodies would carry the meaning a an ant colony. Ants are tiny, meaningless, useless, and can be easily squashed and eliminated. What is the connotation here? Who would refer to the female gender in such context? Why are bugs, especially the insignificant ant, used to define females of the human race?

In "Confessions of a Recovering Mysogynist" by Kevin Powell the author discusses feelings and insights of misogyny that are commonalities in the birth of many male misogynists. Among these commonalities is the fact that first, history books have not given accurate accounts of women and the contributions made by us. Secondly, mothers often spoil our sons by not requiring them to be responsible and productive.

Lastly, and alternately, women often give rise to feelings of abandonment by the fathers of our children and instill blame by oppressing our sons and "beating them down". This widespread conduct has given birth of a great number of society's misogynistic men.

Because men have been the most frequent writers of history, Kevin Powell and so many other young children have not had the privileged to encounter contributions of females in American history. It stands to reason that men have never been alone in this earth. Women are their grandmothers, mothers, aunts, sisters, and daughters. They have been on the island called earth by themselves. It stands to reason that even though not documented, women have played major roles in the development of this nation. I sat in my car waiting for choir rehearsal to start last week. I read Jane Eyre as I waited. A brother came up to my car to speak to me and give me a brotherly kiss on the jaw. When he saw that I was reading the book called "Women's Voices", he jokingly said," what are you reading that garbage for, women have made no real contributions to literature". I gave his response no attention. I realize that misogynist men are all around me and that they have been wrought by society. Mr. Powell describes how males dominated the history books since Betsy Ross was "virtually" the only woman mentioned in American history.

Further, she had a menial job, she sewed the American flag by hand. Sewing is depicted as menial, insignificant, and requiring little skill. Powell nor any other child reading these history books today have not been told that if Ms. Ross was a mother she shaped and molded the mind of man. It was not written nor is it now written that if Ms. Ross was a wife, she influenced if not designed, the thoughts and actions of a man. Neither Mr. Powell nor my own sons have learned in school that women were influential in the development of this nation. I realize that it will take much time and much "re-education" to alter the minds of our men. I am patient with them though, I understand their beginnings and I will subtly or openly (whichever the situation allows for) help to re-educate them.

Misogynistic behavior is developed in some males when they are not expected to wash dishes and perform other chores around the house. Like Kevin Powell whose mother did not require he do chores many little boys today are only required to take out the garbage and maybe cut the grass. Some little boys today are still taught that aggressive behavior is normal, acceptable and oftentimes even expected of them. Little boys are still taught that the world is theirs for the taking. They are still encouraged to fight each other, build and work with their hands. I have witnessed my cousin telling her son who is under the age of two to admire and even touch a female's leg that she deemed as big and pretty, especially when the woman wears stockings. I witnessed grab his hand and put it on the leg of her girlfriend while she said, "see doesn't that feel good" and "isn't that pretty". Little boys listen to their fathers and brothers call females bitches and whores on a daily basis. Like Kevin Powell, little boys are still being trained at home, at school, at church, and by the media to disregard women and their importance.

Surprisingly, though most women consciously agree to lay down with a man and bear his children, they blame these children, especially male children if these fathers abandon them. Very often, the hatred women feel when they are dejected and rejected by their sperm donors is taken out on their sons. The poor little boys are objects of more intense oppression if they happen to physically resemble their fathers. God forbid they exhibit behavior or mannerisms similar to their fathers. I witnessed my aunt turn her son into a monster by constantly beating him down physically and mentally because he looked like his father who abandoned her. Unlike Powell though, he has not been able to recover.
Men who hate women are not born. They are developed. There are many societal ills that instill this behavior in boys and men. Women have always been influential in the lives of men. It will take women to take conscious efforts to empower our daughters, our fellow sisters, and us. It will take the consorted effort of women to change our misogynist fathers, brothers, husbands, and sons into Kevin Powells, "recovering misogynist".

 http://www.helium.com/items/422720-reflections-emotional-abuse

You are So Beautiful

You are so beautiful Black child
you are talented and gifted
You are wonderfully made by God himself
Hold your head up
Pull your pants up and cover up your thighs
know that you are loved
know that you are appreciated
Don’t give the enemy any place to worsen your dilemma
Don’t let anyone lower your low self esteem or cause you to doubt
You are indeed fearfully and wonderfully made
This could be your year to decree it and speak it
This could be the year of new beginnings
So get the move on Black child
God is faithful to perform all that He has promised to you
If you follow his lead you are his chosen
Chosen to be kings, queens, leaders, and priests
Be confident in Him and His word.
You Black child have power
The words you speak from your mouth determine your outcome
Why not speak good and positive things over your life
You are not defeated but rather
you are more than a conqueror
You may have been through a lot in your short life
But when I look at you I see a dimmed light
You are just as beautiful and as strong as ever
They told you you can be what you want to be in times past
You can
Oh how blessed you are
Look what God has done and look where He has brought you from
They stole your mothers and fathers from familiar shores
They didn’t want you to learn how to read
They lynched you and tried to keep your mind enslaved
For some time you played into their hands
You have killed each other so they didn’t have to
But today is a new day
You are beautiful Black Child
You can be what you want to be
Be good
Be positive
Be inspired
Be encouraged
Be uplifted
Be the best
It’s easy
Begin to bless God and praise Him for all that He has done
and for making you so beautiful
and for making you so talented
and for making you so intelligent
and for making you so strong
and for making you just who you are
and for making you the apple of his eye
He had you in his precious hands all the time
Your life is orchestrated by Him.
All you have to do is turn
He knows you and what is best for you
Believe that He has even greater things in store for you
And your children
and your children’s children
Hey Black child
get over the silly stuff
the bad stuff
the stuff that you know is not right
and grab hold of faith
Seek God as never before
Sure, times are hard
Sure, life is rough
Sure, there are difficult challenges you must face
Sure, there are people who try to hold you back
but God is good
Learn to love who He has made you
There is no one like you
You are unique
You are special
There are many things and people
present in the world that will work
to break you down.
The worst thing you can do is help them.
Within these words,
within these pages,
my only hope is
that you find something
to help you define yourself.
My hope is that within
this union of contemporary psalmed passages,
you discover the courage
to be the beautiful individual
you were intended to be.
Enjoy God and enjoy life Black child
There could be good things in store
If you would simply make the right choices
Choose to live right
Choose to go to school
Choose to respect yourself
Choose to respect your elders
Choose to know who you are
Choose to build a nation for your children
Choose to be what you want to be
Mountains will move if you just try
This was written especially for you Black child
With your beautiful selves

Get your copies of She Speaks Psalms and The Purple Rose on  Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=michelle+r+yisrael&x=0&y=0
She Speaks Psalms ISBN 1-60813-056-8 Inspiration, enlightenment, and empowerment for daily living. The author determinedly provides information that is bound to steer her readers to the only source for inner empowerment, The True and Living God. Motivation to live life to its fullest.