Expressing our full range of emotions is healing to the spirit and engages us in the practice of self-acceptance, which is so essential to self-love. Underneath the stern expression I saw my mother and many of her friends wear was an ongoing fear that if they let their guards down, even for a minute, they would be disrespected, hurt, or violated in some way. To love, we have to let fear go and live faith-based lives. Living in faith means that we recog-nize, as our wise black female ancestors did, that we do have the power to decolonize our minds, invent ourselves, and dwell in the spirit of love that is our true destiny.

— Salvation by bell hooks (Page 112)