The Goddess of Life

 It was a bitter cold winter night and I’d just listened to a man begging for cash for thirty minutes. I guess he didn’t believe me when I told him that I didn’t have any money on me. To be honest I’d been confused and left for dead myself. I’d just lost my first professional fight and after I paid all of my bills I only had enough money left to get through the week. Ironically, it was Black History Month and my dream of being remembered amongst the greatest was slowly fading away. No matter what you hear, the truth is that no one wants to sign a contract with a loser. I guess God must have had mercy on me because something strange happened to me that night in my dark room drowning in my sorrows. I’d been sitting in a chair listening to an old radio and that’s when it happened; I heard her voice. Her words were so inspirational, I had to find out who this woman was so I searched for her name on the internet with my phone. It turns out that her stage name was “The Goddess of Life” and her real name was Life Houston. I guess she was an up and coming gospel singer. Every word this woman sang gave me life. I swear, her words lifted my soul to the heavens. I needed her. I left everything, my house, my car, “everything”. I spent the majority of what I had left to get to her once I received enough information about her whereabouts. There she was, singing at a church in the slums of Liberty Ohio. It turns out that her father was a preacher and I got word from some of her followers that she’d never been touched by a man, they told me she was a virgin. I know this was none of my business, but I guess she was the new main attraction. In the middle pews I sat, a no good fighter who’d been battling a porn addiction, and obsessed with someone I’d never even met. The truth hurt me more than anything—I was not worthy of a pure soul so I left only to hear her voice singing as I exited the church. For some reason a tear fell down my face, for I never truly had a friend, my mother was an alcoholic, my dad was a womanizer, and my first wife gave birth to someone else’s child while we were married. Something changed in me on the day I heard her sing and I’m sure they noticed me in the pews when I got up and left. I never was a sentimental man, but “The Goddess of Life” saved me that day. She stood up there with her natural hair and no makeup, singing her little heart out. There was something about her spirit, all I needed to hear was her voice. Waking up in a hotel the next morning, I dusted myself off, picked up some good habits and aimed for my goal to make Black History. She gave me life, nothing more. 

The Goddess of Life