Its Been A Long Time Coming, But Our Change is Here

Dear Beloved,

I hope that your new year is off to a great start because after all, it is what you make it.  I am enjoying 2012 so far.  I am feeling good and I plan to keep it that way.  My change is here and I am going to bathe in it.  Have you ever just felt like a weight had been lifted from you, but you hadn’t done anything to warrant it? That is how I feel. I feel like it is time to get on with the good stuff and let the rest of it go.  I love being able to be free to think because that is when my creative juices flow.  

Sometimes all of the hard work that you have done doesn’t seem to pay off and you feel like no one notices you and you think that there will never be anything that you can do about it.  You want to scream, but who will really care anyway? So, you hold it in and it eats away at everything good that you had inside of you.  Yes, I know.  I know and I understand.  Well, the better news is that we don’t have to worry anymore.  We don’t have to hold in those screams.  We can let it go and let it belong to God.  We don’t have to hold it.  Did you know that? I bet you did, but I bet you were wondering if anyone has ever felt the way that you have felt. The answer is easy and it it is yes!  

I wish that I could be there to see you let go and let God.  I wish that I cold see you when the troubles of the past become the answers for the future.  OMG!!  I know that you are going to be dynamic in this new year.  I know that you are going to be a blessing to someone else just because you can.  I know that you will understand that what you put out is what you will get back, so put out love, friendship, hope, trust, and loyalty and that is truly what you will get back.  Forget all that you did in the past and focus on what you will do in the future.  If you are a writer then you will finish your novel or screen play.  If you are  a student then you will finish school.  You will find that thing that defines you and you will let that thing shine.  

I’m so excited to be in 2012.  I think that this year is going to be one of the best that I have seen in a long while.  

I love you, but you know that.  Did you know that the Great I Am loves you more?

My theme song for this year will be Mary J. Blige’s “Just Fine”.  I’m going to play that every day for the rest of the year and when I hear it I will think of you and how great I know you are doing.  I hope that when you hear it you will think the same for me.  Thinking the thing that we desire is the first step.  

I wish for you only the best in 2012.  I know that you will get it.  BELIEVE.

AMEN

If You Don’t Stand For Something You Will Fall For Anything

Dear Beloved,

Have you ever done anything and then wished you hadn’t? You know that thought that pulls at your every being and makes you feel stupid for doing the thing that you did?  I know that I have and I remember thinking that I wouldn’t do that again, but guess what!  I did it again.  This time I refuse to do it.  

Sometimes people in places of power want to intimidate you, knock you down when you are already low, hold you back when they are intimidated by you, want to take credit for your success, so that they can hold it over your head.Well, if you just stand your ground and wait for the whisper in your ear you will find that everything will fall into place.  It is only when you second guess that whisper or gut feeling that things go awry.  

What are your limits? What are your goals? What are your standards? Do you know? Do you have any?  If you don’t know I suggest that you find them and make them the head of your life and not worry about what others will do or say to you because they are going to do it and say it anyway.  This is a dog eat dog world and you must look out for yourself because only you and God will.  You must also remember that once you have passed the hump that it is imperative that you help someone else over the hump.  Have you ever played or seen kids play leapfrog? At some point you will be the toad and at some point  you will be the toadstool.  People forget that and burn bridges that they think are not important at that moment.  That is the biggest mistake you can ever make.  You never know when the person you supervise could end up your boss.  May not be at the company that you think you are going to retire from and it may not be in the field that you thought you would work in forever and it may not even be a direct report situation.  You treat people how you want to be treated and you make sure that you have exhausted all of your options with that person before you cut them loose because you just never know.

I stand for what is right and good.  I stand for the underdog and all that she represents.  I stand for the person who is willing to stand alone no matter what the storm brings.  That is the person that I want to work with me.  Why? I will be her.  I will be standing for what is right even if it means that I need to stand alone.  I will be standing for honesty even if it means that I stand alone.  I will be standing for fairness even if I need to stand alone.  We were born alone, we will die alone and sometimes we have to stand alone for things that are important.  You don’t have to fall for any ole thing just because everyone else does.  You don’t have to agree just because it is the consensus.  You only have an obligation to yourself and if that means anything to you then the rest of us are safe.

Amen.

What About Today?

Dear Beloved,

How are you today? Do we even know how we are today?  I had to write about this because I spent most of today reliving Friday.  Friday was a doozie of a day and I pushed it aside to enjoy friends and family who were celebrating the holiday.  Today however, I found myself full on and face to face with the issues from Friday.  By the time I looked up the day was over.  How many days have we spent reliving other days in our lives or being angry about something that that is in our past? I don’t know about you, but I am still mastering putting things behind me.  Especially things that feel like they will have a long-term affect on me.  

I am not going to go into detail about the issue, but I will say that finally around 10pm I was able to really release the issue.  How? Well, I talked to a good friend and sometimes it is just a matter of saying aloud what you feel in silence.  Sometimes it is about being reminded that people only have the power that you give them and sometimes it is about simply knowing your worth and not second guessing it.

Struggle is your road map to success. This is what I have been told all of my life. I have struggled past adversity so many times and just when I thought that I could come up for air a hand was pushing me back down into the ocean of circumstance.  I am hear to tell you that it is not about the air that you were not allowed to enjoy, but it is about the strength of your lungs that are able to sustain you while you are below ground.  

Sometimes in order to win the bout you have to tire out your opponent.  While doing this you are able to build your endurance.  The WORD says that it is not given to the swift, nor to the strong, but to the one that can endure until the end.

I encourage you to fall and not wallow while you are on the ground.  How can you ever tell someone how it feels to get up if you have never been down? How can you ever tell someone how it feels to succeed if you never failed.  How will you know what it is like to be rejected if you have never put yourself in the way to be seen?

Today I am not afraid of adversity.  I stand up straight with my heals planted in the ground waiting for the wind to blow.  I am not afraid of failure today because tomorrow is not promised and NOTHING beats a failure but a try.

Today I will live for today and not worry about yesterday because like tomorrow it will and has taken care of its self.

Amen.

What Really Matters

Dear Beloved.

How are you?  I hope that you are well.  It has been a little while since I have written. There is a reason rather than an excuse.  I wanted to get past this season that is called Christmas. I wanted to be sure that I didn’t stand in the place that I did not want to be. I did not want to be in the position of speaking on Christmas as we know it.  I have studied many religions and I have been to many churches and the thing that I value the most about all that I have witnessed is the love that each membership has for the Christ.  No matter what they believe or how they believe the fact of the matter is that they simply believe.  Most of the world celebrates the birth of Jesus on December 25th of each year.  I use to ponder over how they knew what day Jesus was born, but didn’t know what day he died.  I began to study the system called nature and how things happen in the earth according the moon and the sun and I began to understand that the days that have been sat aside are all man dates and have nothing to really do with the spiritual side of things.  I wish I could say that I know what day Jesus was born, but all that I can tell you is the date that he was born in my life.  I wish that I could tell you what date he died and was risen, but all  I can tell you is what day he rose in my life.  

See, it doesn’t matter what the actual dates are, but what does matter is that he IS.  That he was born and that he did die and was risen.  Now, I happen to practice a religion where the standard is that we do not say that Jesus died on Good Friday.  We do not worship in that matter.  I however know that Jesus does die in our lives sometimes, but we don’t call it Good Friday when that happens. No, when that happens we call it doubt.  Doubt comes and crucifies things that we once stood strong on and we begin to second guess things that we know for certain.  Jesus rises when realize that fear is a thief and a robber and we go ahead anyway.  Jesus rises when we so down on ourselves trying to figure out how to make it one more day and something happens in our lives that makes that one more day possible.  

I don’t worry about how you worship or what you call God or Jesus or your higher being, no that is not my concern.  I am just glad that you find a way to worship him.  I am just glad that you can find time to realize that something greater than you is moving and making things possible.  Every eyelash that you have and every hair that is on your head was created by something greater than you.  Something that knows the possibilities that you haven’t even thought about yet.  Something that understands when you think no one else does.  Something that has a love so large and so unconditional that you could not understand it if you tried.  

I say don’t worry about the day that others say that he was born because it matters not.  What does matter is the fact that you know he was born in your life.  If you are seeking and Jesus has not yet been born in your life then call him forward.  Call that miracle child from your solar plexus and birth him into your world so that he can be the blessing to you that you deserve. I encourage you to encourage yourself and allow your miracle to happen.

Amen

Are You Enough?

Dear Beloved,

Have you ever wondered if you are enough?  Are you enough woman? Are you enough man? Are you enough mother or father? Are you a good ENOUGH employee? Are you a good ENOUGH brother or sister?  If you have lived then you probably have allowed this thought to cross one or two streets in you mind.  What makes us think that we are not ENOUGH?  This seems like an easy question as I ponder over it to write this piece, but as I continue to think on it I realize that it is not as easy as I thought.  I’m a magazine fanatic.  I love to read and write so; I have about ten different magazine subscriptions. I read two newspapers a day and I read my Act of Faith by Iyanla Vanzant every morning when I get to work.  In all of the magazines I see fit, thin women with beautiful hair and skin and clothes that look like they were made especially for them (they probably were).  The fantasies created in the magazines are what I was intending to focus on with this particular piece, but then as I thought I realized that it goes way deeper than that.  The magazines may allow us to continue the illusion of not being enough, but it does not start there.  For some of us it started with or without our parents being able to instill a good sense of self within us.  For others it was that first failure that we could not get over that began to drag us down and for still others it may have been a life changing event such as losing a job and not being able to get back in the work force at the salary we were once able to command or have the title or office that we once had.  There are lots and lots of reasons that may contribute to us thinking that we are not enough, but just as there are those reasons there is that funny Newton’s third law that says for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.  How often do you stop and think about the positive when something negative is going on?  Rarely if ever if you are anything like me, every now and then I will say, “oh it could have been worse or I will say look on the bright side.” But, in most cases I am stuck in the moment not worrying about the positive side because I don’t see it.  This is how our self-esteem becomes blemished to the point of non-recognition. 

I am a diehard Queen Latifah fan, so when I received my December-January issue of MORE Magazine with her on the cover I sat down and I read her interview.  I knew that the likely hood of being told anything new and revealing about Queen Latifah was little to none, but Queen Latifah always has something positive to offer her fans when she does an interview and that is what I was reading for.  As expected she did not disappoint.  As Queen Latifah looks back and reflects on her life she does not get bitter at things that she was not successful at but instead she uses them as stepping stones with the understanding that as long as she is alive there will be more things to come.  I love it!!

Some of us may think that EGO is just a bolstering self-ability, but it can also be a tear down.  An ego is just baggage that eventually will way you down, so take a look at yourself.  Your whole self and decide if you are doing what you want to do.  Look at yourself and decide if you are being the best person that you can be.  If not then take what you have and use it for good.  Take what you have and make it enough, because unlike some things there may not be more where that came from.  Remember that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, so when you do your good deed and end up with a flat don’t trip. When you lend money and get that unexpected bill in the mail, don’t trip.  When you cuss the mail person for bringing it and then someone tells you to have a good or blessed day---don’t trip! You are enough and don’t let rose colored water fool you into believing that you are not.  Sometimes you have to look through (and trudge through) muddy waters to find dry land.  Keep your head to the sky and know that you are enough!  PUT ON YOUR CROWN.

AMEN

Sometimes Silence Speaks Volumes!

Dear Beloved,

Has there ever been a time in your life where there were simply no words to express what you were thinking or how you felt?  I think that most of us come across this period of time? Why? Maybe these are the lessons that we are not supposed to oppose and just watch.  Maybe the lesson is what it is and no matter what you say, what you do or what you think you will end up in that same place, so you simply must take the lesson for what it is.  These are the toughest lessons for me.  Why? Because I don’t like to learn them.  Why? Because they don’t feel good.  Why? Because for me it takes a great deal of understanding to make me see what the lesson really is and not just the superficial part of it.

So, the lesson for me was that people are going to do what they have the power to do and it simply doesn’t matter if it is right or wrong. It simply doesn’t matter how it affects others and it simply doesn’t matter if it is the best thing to do ethically or not.  Growing up in a Christian household we were taught to always believe that God would fight your battles and that God was the only one to take revenge.  This was instilled in us just as adamantly as brushing our teeth.  I took that lesson for a long time and I worked with it and I believed it.  Something happened to me one day though and I couldn’t help but question God and ask him why.  I didn’t get an answer timely and as the ball continued to roll in this set of events I wondered how one person could have so much power over another person’s life and wellbeing.  Ok, I admit it.  I’m a control freak.  I like to know how things are going and where things are going and when I don’t it does not make for a happy me.  Well, I kept believing that God was going to do something big in my life and that this person was not going to be able to control my destiny.  I kept believing that if I kept on down my road of determination and destination that I would surely make it to the grand finale of an ending that I had in mind for myself.  Well, I would like to tell you that is what happened.  I would like to tell you that God gave me this grand revelation and that all was well.  I would like to tell you that the plans that this person had for me did not happen.  I would like to tell you that, but if I did I would not be telling you the truth.  When this whole thing happened it devastated me.  I fell hard.  My faith fell and my belief in self fell.  It was not a good feeling and I don’t think that I ever recovered 100 percent.  What I can tell you in truth and in honesty is that sometimes things just are.  People that are kidnapped and tortured don’t want that for their lives.  People that are murdered don’t want that for their lives. People that don’t have anything and wonder from year to year if things will ever get better don’t want that for their lives.  We can only be what we can be in our own depth of understanding.  If our depth of understanding runs low then chances are we will run low on things in life.  Why? Because our dreams are grander than our belief of achievement, you have to believe that you can do something in order to do it. Even after you have done it you still may say, “I didn’t even think that I could do it.” But something in you said you could and it made you try it and when you tried it you were successful.  For my situation I didn’t try to fight what the person had in store for me.  I believe that the fight would be fought for me and I did nothing.  What type of understanding was that?  It was a grand misunderstanding.  Don’t be misunderstood.  If you don’t fight for yourself who will?

Amen

Book Review Patricia Louise-Pondering the Reflections of Life

Patricia Louise-Pondering the Reflections of Life and the Reflections of Love

There is something special about a book when it moves you to want to do better.  Pondering the Reflection of Life and the Reflections of Love does that.  Patricia Louise uses her own life’s experience to make readers understand that life happens and when it does it is up to us to take charge and make the best out of what we have been given.  Louise writes on a mirror of the imagination that allows for great thought and provoking conscious transformations.  If making a change is something that you strongly want to do, but you just are not sure how to go about doing it then this book is for you.  We often hear that life doesn’t come with instructions, well, that may be true, but Louise gives readers an idea on how to live better, appreciate more and regret less.  The book gives the words, “don’t give up” an entirely new and profound meaning that pushes you when you think you can’t go any further and motivates you to take the baby steps necessary to eventually get you to the gargantuan leaps that you will be able to take once you have been freed mentally, physically and emotionally of the baggage you carry from day to day living.  This book is a must read and a must-do.


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