Bag Ladies: Unpacked: Real Women who have Journeyed Beyond the Baggage of their Past

By Kimberly A. Cullen and Rachel Renee

Bag Ladies: Unpacked, a stage play by Kimberly A. Cullen, is an exhibit of women's life stories and the baggage we may carry spiritually and emotionally, from past and present crises to generational curses. It depicts how the baggage we carry can be the weight that prevents us from moving forward in life and growing in love. Eventually we start to

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rain Publishing
• Release date: Jul 12, 2014
• ISBN: 9780991661862

Book preview

Introduction

Bag Ladies: Unpacked, a stage play by Kimberly A. Cullen, is an exhibit of women’s life stories and the baggage we may carry spiritually and emotionally, from past and present crises to generational curses. It depicts how the baggage we carry can be the weight that prevents us from moving forward in life and growing in love. Eventually we start to unpack those emotions and insecurities on the people closest to us, which inevitably becomes a burden that not only we carry, but that our loved ones are compelled to carry as well.

Past and present life circumstances and experiences from being molested, abused emotionally and physically, abandonment, neglect, rape, abortion, death etc. can cause the death and decay of our natural ability to love freely with vulnerability. Shame does not allow the process that is necessary to heal the pain. Meanwhile we miss opportunities to demonstrate love to our children, husbands, family, and others. We become so consumed with the weight of our past that we lose sight of God’s intention for our lives. We may feel irreparable, broken, and useless like damaged goods.

Our frustration and inability to change our past and present circumstances causes us to react emotionally irrational, settling for less than God’s best. Being driven by loneliness and desire can lead to temporary fixes that leave us addicted and cause us to chase a high that can only be fulfilled by God’s Love. Pain becomes the comfort. The silent whispers of God’s divine intervention become faint and we miss the moment to move towards healing. Sometimes our misguided desires will cause us to take our attention off what’s most important, causing the assassination of our plans, dreams, goals, even life itself.

In this book, we take a closer look at the main characters of Bag Ladies: Unpacked and witness various ways to overcome the issues that they represent by celebrating the stories of real women who have triumphed over loneliness, addiction, promiscuity, molestation, abuse, neglect, guilt, and depression.

Kier Ayers, Tina Bailey, Ebony Bell, Doretha Crews, Nicole Griggs, Ronda Henry, Kim Lewis, Desiree Monique, Rachel Renee Smith, Caela Strong, and Tamela Farrar have all shared their personal stories within these pages. It is interesting how many similar threads run through each of these unique accounts. It is amazing how you can perhaps see a little of yourself in each story. Most notably, you will see your own strength and realize that you don’t have to prove it to anyone by carrying around all that extra weight. Unpack your bags and move forward in freedom with us!

~Kimberly A. Cullen & Rachel Renee Smith

Chapter one

The Characters of the Play, "Bag Ladies:

Unpacked"

Within the stage play, Bag Ladies: Unpacked, playwright Kimberly A. Cullen explores the lives of five fictitious women who, not unlike many of us, carry hidden and not-so-hidden baggage that has proven to be completely destructive to their lives. Also like most women, these characters cope with their demons the best way they know how, which as we can see, is not working. The reality is that they cannot rid themselves of this baggage on their own, they need help in every sense of the word.

Lalona -

Loneliness and

Addiction

Imagine having everything a woman could seemingly want, but your soul still longs for the company of your self-esteem to secure you as a woman. Lalona is a classy, sexy, goal-driven entrepreneur that most would envy or want to emulate, but she suffers from a slow and common killer called Loneliness. Her cry for help wasn’t loud enough for others to notice as it was disguised by her front as the woman who everyone needs. She’s the financial support of her immediate family and her mother and sister depend on her to fill in the blanks financially and emotionally. Her dark secret becomes her best friend and the pain of her past seems to hunt her in her sleep. Drugs help to drown out her negative thoughts and complete the empty space in her heart.

Lalona is codependent on something that causes her to keep chasing a temporary high and feeling of relief. If you have ever suffered with an addiction or intimately known someone who has, you know that you are constantly chasing that first high, trying to get that first feeling back. That is why the habit is so hard to break – you are grasping for whatever it is that will get your mind off your current situation, leaving you only with total euphoria and satisfaction, no matter how fleeting and short-lived that feeling is. If you can relate to Lalona’s pain, what is it that you really want in your life? Do you know that help is available for you to receive what you really need?

Awanda -

Trading Sex for Love

She could be the poster-child for addiction to being mistreated. Many could say that it is just history repeating itself. Awanda is a slave to what she saw in her mother’s past relationships, which eventually taught her that love hurts, doesn’t stay, and is lustful, deceitful, and manipulative. She may not even realize that what she really wants is true love but her desperate attempts to get some form of it almost cost her life.

Awanda’s actions are like taking your valuables to the pawn shop. You think you are going to get at least $200 for your item when in actuality you are going to get $40. You don’t like it but you take it because you need the money. You settle for less even though you expected to get a greater value. You have lost your valuable and the petty amount you received for it is quickly spent, once again leaving you with a feeling of loss and a