My Cotton Patch Moment

Welcome to Season 2, where I will focus on health and well-being. New York Times and international bestselling author Eleanor Brown states, "Self-care is not selfish. You cannot serve from an empty vessel." How true that is. I learned this twice in my life. Once while battling a Texas employer in a civil lawsuit and once when I became overwhelmed with the demands of creativity.

I am excited that one of these stories is detailed in My memoir: "Daddy's House: A Daughter's Memoir of Setbacks, Triumphs & Rising Above Her Roots," due in December. Be the first to know when it is available by following me here.

Honorable Mentions

Welcome to 'Billionaire Lane'

What We Carry: A Memoir by Maya Shanbhag Lang

Wendy Winn

Island of Incarceration, Island of Freedom

The Importance of Taking Breaks

The Benefits And Importance Of A Support System

Write a Review for My Cotton Patch Moment

📝👧🏽👩🏽🧓🏽📖

This podcast is hosted by Mildred J. Mills. Mildred writes raw and poignant stories describing monumental highs and devastating lows as she takes her reader and listener on a journey of laughter and tears. Mildred survived a childhood of picking cotton on her strict, domineering father's farm and thrived in a male-dominant IT industry for forty years.

Mildred recently completed her manuscript, a memoir, Unbroken: My Journey of Defiance, Resilience, & Grace". You can be the first one to know when it is available for purchase by following her here.

📝👧🏽👩🏽🧓🏽📖

If you would love to connect with Mildred, join her in these following spaces:

Website

LinkedIn

Instagram

Facebook

Twitter

Have you been inspired by this Cotton Patch Moment? If so, Mildred encourages you to leave a review, comment, email and tell her about it! Also, share this episode with someone you love. You never know who needs to hear an inspiring word.

The music and sound effects for this episode came from Epidemic Sound, Soundstripe and/or Pixabay. Crackers In Soup is the audio editor and producer for this episode.

Who knew writing my memoir would lead to a podcast? I sure didn't. But a literary agent reviewing my book informed me that since I was not famous or an athlete or politician known to thousands of followers, I must market & introduce myself to a broad audience to sell my book. Disappointed but not deterred, I researched podcasting to connect with a greater audience. My head spun with all the feedback I received while creating My Cotton Patch Moment. But then everything changed with each episode. You, Dear Listener, including family, friends, tennis teammates, social media followers, and people I met along the way, responded more positively than I ever dreamed possible. And that is why this episode is my love letter to you! Thank you for taking this journey with me.

My memoir: "Unbroken: My Journey of Defiance, Resilience, & Grace," is due out later this year. You can be the first to know when it is available by following me here.

Honorable Mentions

Crackers In Soup, LLC

Write a Review for My Cotton Patch Moment

📝👧🏽👩🏽🧓🏽📖

This podcast is hosted by Mildred J. Mills. Mildred writes raw and poignant stories describing monumental highs and devastating lows as she takes her reader and listener on a journey of laughter and tears. Mildred survived a childhood of picking cotton on her strict, domineering father's farm and thrived in a male-dominant IT industry for forty years.

Mildred recently completed her manuscript, a memoir, Unbroken: My Journey of Defiance, Resilience, & Grace". You can be the first one to know when it is available for purchase by following her here.

📝👧🏽👩🏽🧓🏽📖

If you would love to connect with Mildred, join her in these following spaces:

Website

LinkedIn

Instagram

Facebook

Twitter

Have you been inspired by this Cotton Patch Moment? If so, Mildred encourages you to leave a review, comment, email and tell her about it! Also, share this episode with someone you love. You never know who needs to hear an inspiring word.

The music and sound effects for this episode came from Epidemic Sound, Soundstripe and/or Pixabay. Crackers In Soup is the audio editor and producer for this episode.

From kids screaming in the grocery store to seeing them trying to get a fourth dessert at the cookout, on more than one occasion I have thought, "That child has no home training." But watching my children do things I know they were not raised to do or think, and remembering some of my questionable youth choices, changed my perspective on observing other children's behavior.

There is more to this episode in my memoir: "Unbroken: My Journey of Defiance, Resilience, & Grace," due out later this year. You can be the first to know when it is available for by following me here.

Honorable Mentions

Perception and Play: How Children View the World

Throwing It All Away: When Good Kids Make Bad Choices

A Healthy Dose of Guilt

📝👧🏽👩🏽🧓🏽📖

This podcast is hosted by Mildred J. Mills. Mildred writes raw and poignant stories describing monumental highs and devastating lows as she takes her reader and listener on a journey of laughter and tears. Mildred survived a childhood of picking cotton on her strict, domineering father's farm and thrived in a male-dominant IT industry for forty years.

Mildred recently completed her manuscript, a memoir, Unbroken: My Journey of Defiance, Resilience, & Grace". You can be the first one to know when it is available for purchase by following her here.

📝👧🏽👩🏽🧓🏽📖

If you would love to connect with Mildred, join her in these following spaces:

Website

LinkedIn

Instagram

Facebook

Twitter

Have you been inspired by this Cotton Patch Moment? If so, Mildred encourages you to leave a review, comment, email and tell her about it! Also, share this episode with someone you love. You never know who needs to hear an inspiring word.

The music and sound effects for this episode came from Epidemic Sound, Soundstripe and/or Pixabay. Crackers In Soup is the audio editor and producer for this episode.

Maya Angelou became inspired to write when she joined the Harlem Writers Guide in the late 1950s. My inspiration to write was somewhat similar. After signing up for a writing class to keep my mind sharp, I was challenged to write a short story about a life event. My story about domestic violence caught the eye of the teacher who asked me to speak with her after class one day. She encouraged me to keep writing. That class awakened a love in me for sharing my experiences through stories. "My Wall of Shame" may have been the first story I ever penned, but it would not be my last.

There is more to this episode in my memoir: "Unbroken: My Journey of Defiance, Resilience, & Grace," due out later this year. You can be the first to know when it is available for by following me here.

Honorable Mentions

Writing Can Help Us Heal from Trauma

How reading and writing can help survivors of domestic abuse

Unique Challenges of Women Experiencing Homelessness

How Love Letters Help Keep Your Love Alive

📝👧🏽👩🏽🧓🏽📖

This podcast is hosted by Mildred J. Mills. Mildred writes raw and poignant stories describing monumental highs and devastating lows as she takes her reader and listener on a journey of laughter and tears. Mildred survived a childhood of picking cotton on her strict, domineering father's farm and thrived in a male-dominant IT industry for forty years.

Mildred recently completed her manuscript, a memoir, Unbroken: My Journey of Defiance, Resilience, & Grace". You can be the first one to know when it is available for purchase by following her here.

📝👧🏽👩🏽🧓🏽📖

If you would love to connect with Mildred, join her in these following spaces:

Website

LinkedIn

Instagram

Facebook

Twitter

Have you been inspired by this Cotton Patch Moment? If so, Mildred encourages you to leave a review, comment, email and tell her about it! Also, share this episode with someone you love. You never know who needs to hear an inspiring word.

The music and sound effects for this episode came from Epidemic Sound, Soundstripe and/or Pixabay. Crackers In Soup is the audio editor and producer for this episode.

I nurtured relatives, charities, and people asking for spare change for over forty years but denied myself. Beginning in my fifties, I focused on what brings me joy. I volunteered at a women's shelter, a children's hospital, and my son's school. I threw myself a big birthday bash, enjoyed lunch with girlfriends, and traveled extensively. A missionary trip to Nairobi, Kenya, to visit orphanages at the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic is one of my greatest joys.

There is more to this episode in my memoir: "Unbroken: My Journey of Defiance, Resilience, & Grace," due out later this year. You can be the first to know when it is available for by following me here.

Honorable Mentions

Mark 9:36-37

Sickle Cell Anemia

Volunteering and its Surprising Benefits

Bread of Life

Oasis of Hope - Kenya

📝👧🏽👩🏽🧓🏽📖

This podcast is hosted by Mildred J. Mills. Mildred writes raw and poignant stories describing monumental highs and devastating lows as she takes her reader and listener on a journey of laughter and tears. Mildred survived a childhood of picking cotton on her strict, domineering father's farm and thrived in a male-dominant IT industry for forty years.

Mildred recently completed her manuscript, a memoir, Unbroken: My Journey of Defiance, Resilience, & Grace". You can be the first one to know when it is available for purchase by following her here.

📝👧🏽👩🏽🧓🏽📖

If you would love to connect with Mildred, join her in these following spaces:

Website

LinkedIn

Instagram

Facebook

Twitter

Have you been inspired by this Cotton Patch Moment? If so, Mildred encourages you to leave a review, comment, email and tell her about it! Also, share this episode with someone you love. You never know who needs to hear an inspiring word.

The music and sound effects for this episode came from Epidemic Sound, Soundstripe and/or Pixabay. Crackers In Soup is the audio editor and producer for this episode.

My Daddy, Abraham Billups, was the first man I ever loved. I adored his flawless skin, self-assuredness, and unparalleled work ethic. But as a child growing up on his Alabama cotton field, I did not appreciate my father's positive attributes. All I could see was his stormy temperament. There is more to this episode in my memoir: "Unbroken: My Journey of Defiance, Resilience, & Grace," due out later this year. You can be the first to know when it is available for by following me here.

Honorable Mentions

Brief History of America's Black Farmers from Past to Present

Why Black Fathers Are Critical to Childrens' Health

Deacon Abraham Billups' Obituary

📝👧🏽👩🏽🧓🏽📖

This podcast is hosted by Mildred J. Mills. Mildred writes raw and poignant stories describing monumental highs and devastating lows as she takes her reader and listener on a journey of laughter and tears. Mildred survived a childhood of picking cotton on her strict, domineering father's farm and thrived in a male-dominant IT industry for forty years.

Mildred recently completed her manuscript, a memoir, Unbroken: My Journey of Defiance, Resilience, & Grace". You can be the first one to know when it is available for purchase by following her here.

📝👧🏽👩🏽🧓🏽📖

If you would love to connect with Mildred, join her in these following spaces:

Website

LinkedIn

Instagram

Facebook

Twitter

Have you been inspired by this Cotton Patch Moment? If so, Mildred encourages you to leave a review, comment, email and tell her about it! Also, share this episode with someone you love. You never know who needs to hear an inspiring word.

The music and sound effects for this episode came from Epidemic Sound, Soundstripe and/or Pixabay. Crackers In Soup is the audio editor and producer for this episode.

When I left the cotton patch and my family to attend computer school, I never imagined the doors it would open. Doors like modeling, winning beauty pageants, and signing a recording contract! Doors I never dreamed of while staring at a pitch-black sky as I wished on stars in Wetumpka, Alabama.

Honorable Mentions

She Didn't Know (She Kept On Talking) by Dee Dee Warwick

Dayton Daily News

Wright State University

📝👧🏽👩🏽🧓🏽📖

This podcast is hosted by Mildred J. Mills. Mildred writes raw and poignant stories describing monumental highs and devastating lows as she takes her reader and listener on a journey of laughter and tears. Mildred survived a childhood of picking cotton on her strict, domineering father's farm and thrived in a male-dominant IT industry for forty years.

Mildred recently completed her manuscript, a memoir, Unbroken: My Journey of Defiance, Resilience, & Grace". You can be the first one to know when it is available for purchase by following her here.

📝👧🏽👩🏽🧓🏽📖

If you would love to connect with Mildred, join her in these following spaces:

Website

LinkedIn

Instagram

Facebook

Twitter

Have you been inspired by this Cotton Patch Moment? If so, Mildred encourages you to leave a review, comment, email and tell her about it! Also, share this episode with someone you love. You never know who needs to hear an inspiring word.

The music and sound effects for this episode came from Epidemic Sound, Soundstripe and/or Pixabay. Crackers In Soup is the audio editor and producer for this episode.

I had been helping Mama cook since I was five, dashing between the kitchen and her bedroom, making culinary magic. Little did I know that in 10th grade, a cooking and sewing challenge would change the trajectory my life and send me to Hollywood!

Honorable Mentions

Mamaw's Chicken and Rice Casserole

Future Homemakers of America

The 5th Dimension - Up, Up and Away (Official Audio)

📝👧🏽👩🏽🧓🏽📖

This podcast is hosted by Mildred J. Mills. Mildred writes raw and poignant stories describing monumental highs and devastating lows as she takes her reader and listener on a journey of laughter and tears. Mildred survived a childhood of picking cotton on her strict, domineering father's farm and thrived in a male-dominant IT industry for forty years.

Mildred recently completed her manuscript, a memoir, Unbroken: My Journey of Defiance, Resilience, & Grace". You can be the first one to know when it is available for purchase by following her here.

📝👧🏽👩🏽🧓🏽📖

If you would love to connect with Mildred, join her in these following spaces:

Website

LinkedIn

Instagram

Facebook

Twitter

Have you been inspired by this Cotton Patch Moment? If so, Mildred encourages you to leave a review, comment, email and tell her about it! Also, share this episode with someone you love. You never know who needs to hear an inspiring word.

The music and sound effects for this episode came from Epidemic Sound, Soundstripe and/or Pixabay. Crackers In Soup is the audio editor and producer for this episode.

With Mother's Day fast approaching, I thought it was a perfect time to dedicate an entire episode to my mother, Mildred J. Billups - the most talented story teller I have ever known. If you have a parent still with you, please talk to them about their life. Ask them questions. You never know how long they will be with you. Happy Mother's Day, Mama. I miss and love you.

Honorable Mentions

History of Mother's Day

The Power of Sharing Our Families Stories

A Look Into 1940s Weddings

Generational Ties: Understanding Black Mothers and Their Adult Children

📝👧🏽👩🏽🧓🏽📖

This podcast is hosted by Mildred J. Mills. Mildred writes raw and poignant stories describing monumental highs and devastating lows as she takes her reader and listener on a journey of laughter and tears. Mildred survived a childhood of picking cotton on her strict, domineering father's farm and thrived in a male-dominant IT industry for forty years.

Mildred recently completed her manuscript, a memoir, Unbroken: My Journey of Defiance, Resilience, & Grace". You can be the first one to know when it is available for purchase by following her here.

📝👧🏽👩🏽🧓🏽📖

If you would love to connect with Mildred, join her in these following spaces:

Website

LinkedIn

Instagram

Facebook

Twitter

Have you been inspired by this Cotton Patch Moment? If so, Mildred encourages you to leave a review, comment, email and tell her about it! Also, share this episode with someone you love. You never know who needs to hear an inspiring word.

The music and sound effects for this episode came from Epidemic Sound, Soundstripe and/or Pixabay. Crackers In Soup is the audio editor and producer for this episode.

My loss journey began at a young age with my infant sister's passing. I was seven years old, sad, and frightened. Yet, through years of losing close loved ones, I have accepted death as a natural part of life; I cherish the precious moments allotted to me with those I've lost. And, though nothing or no one can fill their void, I am at peace as I journey on, carrying their memories as a source of comfort and strength.

Honorable Mentions

Precious Lord, Take My Hand by Thomas Dorsey

The Lord's Prayer by Andrea Bocelli

James 5:16: Healing will follow; sins will be forgiven

Summer Marie Thompson

📝👧🏽👩🏽🧓🏽📖

This podcast is hosted by Mildred J. Mills. Mildred writes raw and poignant stories describing monumental highs and devastating lows as she takes her reader and listener on a journey of laughter and tears. Mildred survived a childhood of picking cotton on her strict, domineering father's farm and thrived in a male-dominant IT industry for forty years.

Mildred recently completed her manuscript, a memoir, Unbroken: My Journey of Defiance, Resilience, & Grace". You can be the first one to know when it is available for purchase by following her here.

📝👧🏽👩🏽🧓🏽📖

If you would love to connect with Mildred, join her in these following spaces:

Website

LinkedIn

Instagram

Facebook

Twitter

Have you been inspired by this Cotton Patch Moment? If so, Mildred encourages you to leave a review, comment, email and tell her about it! Also, share this episode with someone you love. You never know who needs to hear an inspiring word.

The music and sound effects for this episode came from Epidemic Sound, Soundstripe and/or Pixabay. Crackers In Soup is the audio editor and producer for this episode.