Alice Walker wrote The Color Purple over forty years ago. The book spawned two feature films and one Broadway musical.

The story is told from the point of view of an African American teenager, Celie, living in rural Georgia during Reconstruction. She suffers from abuse but eventually triumphs through the process of owning her story.

She reveals her thoughts and feelings in letters to God and overcomes extreme isolation through the bonds she forms with other women.

I couldn’t help but think about this story as my morning walks have taken me past a brown brick bungalow two blocks away. A small patch of purple tulips bloomed there, seemingly overnight.

The book title refers to a conversation Celie has with a confident, fully expressed, older woman, Shug Avery, in which she is asked whether she notices the little things God gives us to demonstrate His love.

Shug says, “I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.”

Who can NOT notice such beauty? I’ve looked forward to lingering in front of these purple tulips in the course of my morning walk every day this week. The color is rich and evocative. The flowers are also beautiful to me because they seem to want to be noticed.

I have observed myself making all sorts of associations with these purple tulips, with the themes of this novel, with the forward movement of my life, and the crossroads we seem to be at as a country.

In January of 1973, the Supreme Court declared that women in the United States had a fundamental right to reproductive freedom. Along with the right to vote, workplace protections and economic equality, to many, this represents a fundamental and hard-earned freedom.

The very idea that the right to have agency over your own body is being chiseled away is almost unimaginable, yet, in the overturning of Roe v. Wade and many state laws, this has been happening.

As I watched the purple tulips dance in the summer breeze, my mind filled with thoughts about the beauty of small things that are in our world to notice and appreciate.

I also gave thought to how power and abuse plays in our lives, how people in a privileged position will do anything to keep that power and how so much abuse is directed at women, especially poor women whose life experience reinforce the idea that they can’t fight.

I am reminded to hold on to the lesson of the novel. Celie comes to own her life by acknowledging the value of her thoughts and accepting that she has the power to define herself.

She strengthens her understanding of her self-worth through the relationships she forms with other women. By exposing some of her vulnerabilities, by sharing intimate thoughts and dreams, she breaks the bubble around her isolation.

I’ve seen this in my life, a growing acceptance of my right to think and feel whatever comes to me, then to find encouragement in a receptive audience.

I hope women throughout the country (and the men who love them) recognize that their right to control their bodies should not be taken away. I hope women keep speaking their truth to those in power and take strength from sharing their stories with other women.

I expect there will be challenges and setbacks, but life can’t help but move forward. Each person has to step up when something they value requires effort.

Being able to stand up for yourself AND pause to take pleasure in the purple tulips is no small thing.

Re-printed with permission.

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